Archives for posts with tag: announcement

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

remember this name: laura clarke

June 9, 2013 //

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.

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

winner! hilary weston prize

November 14, 2012 //

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).

 

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

winners! writers’ trust awards 2012

November 9, 2012 //

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

 

 

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

and the nonfiction nominees are …

September 25, 2012 //

Barbara Amiel Black, James Bartleman, Marni Jackson, Galen Weston and others applaud the shortlist announcement

At an elegant event at Loblaws at Maple leaf Gardens this morning (prosciutto-wrapped delicacies at 11 am!) we announced the shortlist for the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

This just a few days after we announced  an arrangement with Loblaw Companies that will see the nominated books promoted in more than 200 stores across Canada (this is huge, and we’re tickled pink).

The five contenders are:

Kamal Al-Solaylee, Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes (HarperCollins Publishers)

Modris Eksteins, Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age (Knopf Canada)

Taras Grescoe, Straphanger: Saving our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile (HarperCollins Publishers)

JJ Lee, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit (McClelland & Stewart)

Candace Savage, Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape (Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation)

Also announced was the addition of Seamus O’Regan and Barbara Amiel Black to the jury.

The winner will be announced on Nov. 12th.

Here’s a roundup of some coverage:

Photo Gallery

National Post

CBC

CBC Live

Toronto Star

Quill & Quire

Vancouver Sun

Humber News

 

 

 

 

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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

place your bets! it’s shortlist time

September 19, 2012 //

 

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.


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Categories Literary Awards, Publicity

"A new generation of Canadian writers [is] honoured"

October 2, 2011 //

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

 

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Categories Literary Awards