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hilary weston prize winner

October 19, 2014 //

The books nominated for the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. cr. Tom Sandler

 

On October 14, at a salon-style gathering of more than 200 guests, the 2014 fall literary season shifted into high gear with the awarding of the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. The winner was Naomi Klein for her book This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs. the Climate.

The other nominees, who each took home $5,000, were:

  • Susan Delacourt for Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them
  • Charles Montgomery for Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
  • Paula Todd for Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies, and Predators Online
  • Kathleen Winter for Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage

Here’s a round-up of what the media said:

 

 

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

writers’ trust announces fiction finalists

October 4, 2014 //

 

The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize now have shortlists! And this is my fifth year at the PR end of both prizes, which also deserves an exclamation mark >> !

As usual, the nominees were announced at a buzzing-yet-cozy event at Ben McNally Books in downtown Toronto. There were publishers, there was media, there were giant book covers printed on foam-core backing. There was coffee. There was also a vat of jam that was perhaps a joke on the part of the caterers…. Either way, it got good Twitter from the assembled coffee-and-pastry hungry crowd.

The Fiction Prize nominees were announced by Jan Innes, vice president, government affairs, Rogers Communications, and Helen Humphreys, a past winner of the prize and one of this year’s jurors.

The nominees are:

  • André Alexis for Pastoral, published by Coach House Books
  • Steven Galloway for The Confabulist, published by Knopf Canada
  • K.D. Miller for All Saints, published by Biblioasis
  • Carrie Snyder for Girl Runner, published by House of Anansi
  • Miriam Toews for All My Puny Sorrows, published by Knopf Canada

The Journey Prize nominees were announced by jurors Craig Davidson and Steven W. Beattie.

Those nominees are:

  • Tyler Keevil for “Sealskin”
  • Lori McNulty for “Monsoon Season”
  • Clea Young for “Juvenile”

Here’s a sampling of what people said about the announcement:

The winners will be announced at the Writers’ Trust Awards on November 4.

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

a new (book) shopping list

September 17, 2014 //

Prize juror Merrily Weisbord announces a nominee for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

A brand new book shopping list was announced this morning at Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto: the 2014 shortlist for the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

The nominees were announced at a press conference attended by 75 guests representing the publishing community, arts and entertainment media, and our prize partners. Guests were welcomed by the Hon. Hilary M. Weston, and the five nominees were announced by jurors Charles Foran, Priscila Uppal, Merrily Weisbord and Peter Mansbridge.

The nominees are:

  • Susan Delacourt for Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them
  • Naomi Klein for This Changes Everything: Capitalism Vs the Climate
  • Charles Montgomery for Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
  • Paula Todd for Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies and Predators Online
  • Kathleen Winter for Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage

Media coverage from the event included:

Information about the nominees and their books is available at writerstrust.com

 

 

 

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partying politics

April 7, 2014 //

Covers of the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize nominated books hang above the crowd at the Politics & the Pen Gala

At a black-tie dinner at Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier last week, Maclean’s political editor Paul Wells was named the popular winner (with many friends and colleagues among the 500 guests) of the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for his book The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006 –. You can read his acceptance speech on Macleans.ca, here.

The award is presented at the Politics & the Pen Gala, which raises in excess of $300,000 annually for the Writers’ Trust of Canada.

This year’s event was hosted (to a standing ovation after their opening skit) by Hon. Lisa Raitt, Minister of Transport, and Ms. Megan Leslie, Member of Parliament for Halifax and member of the Official Opposition. Next to the announcement of the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize winner, the co-hosts’ duet of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive,” with specially written lyrics about being a woman on Parliament Hill, was the highlight of the evening.

Paul Wells’ fellow nominees for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize were: Margaret MacMillan for The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, Charles Montgomery for Happy City: Transforming Our Lives through Urban Design, Donald J. Savoie for Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher: How Government Decides and Why, and Graeme Smith for The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan, which won the 2013 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Media coverage for the five Shaughnessy Cohen Prize nominees included an interview series in the Globe & Mail (here) and an interview with juror Doug Saunders on CBC Radio One’s Ottawa drive-home show, All in a Day, as the Politics & the Pen gala was getting underway.

CTV Ottawa came to the cocktail reception (video clip here), and Paul Wells was dragged out of bed dark and early the morning after his win to appear on CTV Ottawa’s breakfast show, CTV Morning Live (video clip here).

If you’d like to see some photos from the night, you’re in luck, because there are LOTS.

Here’s a selection:

 

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Categories Events, Fundraisers, Literary Awards, Publicity

a short play about censorship

March 5, 2014 //

Kaleb Alexander as Lawrence Hill defending The Book of Negroes. Birdtown & Swanville perform their Freedom to Read Week play, Dear Censor

For this year’s Freedom to Read Week in Canada – the 30th anniversary event – I was honoured to get the chance to collaborate with some hard-working friends who are not part of the book biz, and whose work I greatly admire. On Tuesday, February 25 at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto, the Book & Periodical Council, which organizes Freedom to Read Week, and Birdtown & Swanville, a local theatre club, presented DEAR CENSOR: a short play about censorship.

The play featured letters by Margaret Atwood, Lawrence Hill, Margaret Laurence, Rohinton Mistry, Ann Patchett and others, written at different points in time in defence of their own work. Birdtown & Swanville turned these letters into a play about censorship that was original, unusual and a first for Freedom to Read Week. Oh, and it was also fabulous and very fun.

The event got a feature write-up in Hazlitt.

Birdtown & Swanville’s Aurora Stewart de Pena appeared on CBC Radio One’s Metro Morning to talk it up, and Gill Deacon got well behind it on her drive-home show, Here & Now.

Further coverage for this year’s Freedom to Read Week included:

  • An interview with author and former children’s librarian Ken Setterington in the 49th Shelf.
  • An essay by a Calgary student about free expression that was published in the Huffington Post.
  • A challenged books quiz in Quill & Quire.
  • An info-graphic about book challenges in Canada at CBC Books.
  • An article about intellectual freedom in Canada from CJFE.

Freedom to Read Week is a programme of the Book & Periodical Council. The annual Freedom to Read Week event in Toronto is organized by the Book & Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression Events Committee, on which I am a volunteer. I am also a freelance publicist for Freedom to Read Week.

 

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shaughnessy cohen prize shortlist

February 4, 2014 //

image: shaughnessy cohen prize shortlist

 

The shortlist for the 2013 Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing was announced this morning.

The nominees are:

  • Margaret MacMillan for The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914
  • Charles Montgomery for Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
  • Donald J. Savoie for Whatever Happened to the Music Teacher? How Government Decides and Why
  • Graeme Smith for The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan
  • Paul Wells for The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006 —

Media coverage for the shortlist included:

Canadian Press

Globe and Mail

National Post

Quill & Quire

Toronto Star

The winner will be announced at the Politics & the Pen Gala in Ottawa on April 2.

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Categories Fundraisers, Literary Awards, Publicity

freedom to read week turns 30

February 3, 2014 //

image: FTRW banner

 

Freedom to Read Week celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with events in schools, libraries and pubic spaces across Canada.

A celebration of the free exchange of ideas and information, Freedom to Read Week is also an annual reminder of the threats to roll back such freedom. A fun event, with a serious message.

Visit their website here to find out information about books and periodicals that have been challenged in Canada, and details of events taking place across the country.

 

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$114,000 and a few tears at the writers’ trust awards

November 29, 2013 //

Writers' Trust Award winners (l to r) Andrew Nikiforuk, Lisa Moore, Naben Ruthnum, Colin McAdam, Barbara Reid

On November 20, 2013 the Writers’ Trust of Canada held its 13th annual Writers’ Trust Awards in the Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto. The big winners of the night were:

  • Colin McAdam for A Beautiful Truth, which won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize;
  • Naben Ruthnum for “Cinema Rex,” which won the Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize;
  • Lisa Moore, who won the Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award;
  • Andrew Nikiforuk, who won the Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life;
  • Barbara Reid, who won the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People;
  • McClelland & Stewart, which won the Writers’ Trust Distinguished Contribution Award in recognition of having been the sponsor of the Journey Prize since its inception 25 years ago.

The Writers’ Trust Awards is always a great event to be a part of, with the feeling in the room being one of support, congratulation and celebration. The acceptance speeches were heartfelt, in some cases emotional, and spoke to the importance of awards such as these to support, nurture and also showcase Canada’s finest literary talent.

Here’s some of the media coverage:

 

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writers at night

November 20, 2013 //

Gill Deacon and Zaib Shaikh host the Writers' Trust Gala

For this update I’m shamelessly borrowing the title of an annual series that Open Book: Toronto runs to preview the Writers’ Trust Gala. (It’s a fun series with a good title. Read it here.)

This year marked the 28th edition of the Gala, which was attended by more than 400 members of the literary, arts and philanthropic communities and raised $220,000 for the Writers’ Trust of Canada.

Highlights included the terrarium centrepieces containing miniature readers and books, a literary treasure hunt, and of course fine food and company with everyone dressed in their best.

Some photo galleries from the night are here, here, and here.

 

 

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graeme smith: hilary weston prize winner

October 24, 2013 //

Photographer: Sonia Recchia / Pimentel Photo

More than 200 members of the literary, arts and philanthropic communities gathered at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Monday, October 21, to fete the nominees and discover the winner of the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. The one-hour ceremony included dramatic performances from the nominated books, a slide show of the books in locations across Canada, and original art created on the spot in response to  excerpts from the books. The event culminated, of course, in the announcement of the winner, and a “rock star party.”

Graeme Smith took the prize for his book The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan

The other nominees, who each took home $5,000, were:

  • Thomas King for The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America
  • J.B. MacKinnon for Our Once and Future World: Nature As it Was, As it Is, As it Could Be
  • Andrew Steinmetz for This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla
  • Priscila Uppal for Projection: Encounters With My Runaway Mother

Here’s some of the coverage:

 

 

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