Archives for posts with tag: literary award

Lynn Patterson from RBC presents Laura Clarke with her prize

On May 28, 2013, at a ceremony at Toronto’s Koerner Hall, Laura Clarke was named the winner of the $5,000 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers.

On May 29, Jeff Douglas read a poem from Laura’s winning collection, “Mule Variations,” on CBC Radio As it Happens. Here’s the audio.

And on June 8, Laura went on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air to talk about her poet’s journey thus far, and what it means to win an award such as this. Here’s the audio.

Congratulations to Laura and to her fellow nominees, Laura Matwichuk and Suzannah Showler.

Work by all three of the finalists is available as a free download in the iBookstore.

Hon. Hilary M. Weston presents the prize to Candace Savage

No rest for the wicked after the Writers’ Trust Awards on November 7. Team WT jumped straight back in to glam prize-giving mode for the awarding of the second-annual Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction on Monday, November 12. The pink-carpet event was held at Toronto’s Koerner Hall.

At stake: the largest literary prize awarded annually to a work of Canadian nonfiction, and at $60,000, a prize pot bigger than the Giller.

The nominees were announced September 25. Read about that here.

The winner *drum roll* Canadace Savage for A Geography of Blood.

First they shock you, then they make you speak to a room full of people.”

Candace said as she arrived at the podium to accept her award. And then,

Mrs. Weston, I hope you understand how much your very tangible expression of support means, not just to your shortlisted authors, but to the entire literary community in Canada.”

Candace embarked on a whirlwind of publicity, including:

Canada AM
Global Saskatoon
CBC Radio One Saskatchewan Morning
CBC Live
Globe Parties
Prairie Post
Southwest Booster
Maclean’s (a neat little Twitter diary of how the night played out)

Thanks to the National Post for their “Story Behind the Story” series with the nominees and Writers’ Trust Awards hub, and for running full-page excerpts in their Comments & Ideas section in the lead-up to the announcement.

Thanks to CBC Books for being awesome media partners ad for all their #WestonPrize contesting, Q&As, audio coverage and so much more.

Looking forward to next year already (after a small literary nap, perhaps).

 

Shelagh Rogers hosts the 12th annual Writers' Trust Awards

On November 7, at the Isabel Bader Theatre in Toronto, the Writers’ Trust of Canada presented six of the country’s most prestigious literary prizes at the 12th annual Writers’ Trust Awards.

The winners were:

Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize: Tamas Dobozy for Siege 13. Dobozy, who won $25,000,  was shocked and delighted, and dedicated the award to his father.

Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize: Alex Pugsley, who won $10,000 for his short story “Crisis on Earth-X.”

Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award for a writer in mid-career: Nino Ricci won $25,000 and delivered a poignant speech about the writer’s lot that was subsequently printed in the Toronto Star.

The real purpose of award ceremonies like this one,” he said, “is not so much to honour particular individuals as to raise all boats, and to remind us that literature is still here, alive and kicking, for all the announcements of its impending demise.”

Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life: Jean Little, beloved author of more than 50 books for children, won $20,000. Jean’s seeing-eye dog, Honey, stood faithfully by her side as she accepted the award.

Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature: Paul Yee, the Chinese-Canadian Children’s author of Ghost Train and Tales from Gold Mountain, won $20,000. This year marked the 50th awarding of the Vicky Metcalf.

The Writers’ Trust Distinguished Contribution Award this year went to the Metcalf Foundation for their sponsorship, since its inception, of the Vicky Metcalf Award.

In total, $114 000 in prizes were given out to Canadian writers. To see what the media had to say about the event, check out the links below:

National Post

Toronto Star

CBC

Globe and Mail (video c/o Canadian Press)

Quill & Quire

 

 

 

This morning, in Toronto’s  Ben McNally Books, we (the staff at the Writers’ Trust, along with jurors Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer and Drew Hayden Taylor) announced the shortlists for the 2012 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for short fiction.

The nominees are:

Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize:

Here’s a roundup of some of the media:

National Post

Globe and Mail

Toronto Star

Quill & Quire

CBC

Both prizes will be presented at the 12th annual Writers’ Trust Awards on Nov. 7th.


Photo: James Di Donato

Did you know that Canada is home to the world’s third largest population of Ukrainians? Neither did I, until I was approached by the Kobzar Literary Award to publicize their 2012 event.

A $25,000 prize that recognizes Canadian writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama or young people’s literature whose work centres on a Ukrainian Canadian theme, the Kobzar Literary Award is handed out every two years by the Shevchenko Foundation. This was the fourth awarding.

Thanks to everyone who supported the event. The dedicated core of literature lovers at the $250-a-ticket ceremony kept the winner and nominees signing books until at least an hour after the dinner was over.

Congratulations to Shandi Mitchell, who won for her debut novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, and to the nominees Laryssa Andrusyshyn, Myrna Kostash, Myroslav Shkandrij, and Rhea Tregebov.

Read and hear more about it at the CBC, National Post, Open Book: Toronto, Quill & Quire, and The 49th Shelf.

Looking forward to the next event in 2014!

The nominees for the 12th annual Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing have been announced, with bugs, border crossings, and — for this not-quite-yet-Canadian — a booster course in Canadian political history that will prove very useful when I get to sit the citizenship test.

Congratulations to Ron Graham, Richard Gwyn, Max & Monique Nemni and their translator George Tombs, Andrew Nikiforuk, and Jacques Poitras.

The winner will be announced at the Politics and the Pen Gala in Ottawa on April 25.

Watch a video about Shaughnessy Cohen’s “drive to find the truth,” how she got a reputation for having all the best gossip, and why Margaret Atwood thought her “a force of nature.”

So said the National Post after the announcement Wednesday of this year’s finalists for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. I’m the publicist for the Writers’ Trust Awards, and this Wednesday morning we announced the finalists  at a press conference at Ben McNally Books in Toronto.

They are:
Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

Clarke Blaise, The Meagre Tarmac
Michael Christie, The Beggar’s Garden
Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues
Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brothers
Dan Vyleta, The Quiet Twin

Writers’  Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize

Seyward Goodhand, “The Fur Trader’s Daughter”
Miranda Hill, “Petitions to Saint Chronic”
Ross Klatte, “First-Calf Heiffer”

Here’s what some of the media had to say.
Globe & Mail
National Post
Toronto Star
Vancouver Sun
Victoria Times Colonist
Quill & Quire
CBC