POETRY NEWS
CANADIAN AUTHORS ANNOUNCES 2010 LITERARY AWARDS WINNERS
The Canadian Authors Association has announced the winners of its annual awards competition for literary works published in 2009. The announcement and presentation of prizes were made during the awards banquet held Saturday, June 26, 2010—a highlight of the association’s annual CanWrite! conference.
The CAA Literary Awards recognize works by Canadian writers who achieve excellence without sacrificing popular appeal. "Submissions to this year’s awards program," said R.L. Stephenson-Read, "were outstanding in terms of quality and originality." The five finalists were chosen from among a total of 297 nominations, including 115 for fiction, 47 for Canadian history, 31 for drama, 94 for poetry and 10 for emerging authors under 30.
The 2010 award winners are as follows:
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MOSAID TECHNOLOGIES AWARD FOR FICTION: Michael Crummey, St. John’s, Newfoundland, for Galore (Doubleday Canada). Prize: $2500 and a silver medal
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LELA COMMON AWARD FOR CANADIAN HISTORY: Jonathan F. Vance, London, Ontario for A History of Canadian Culture (Oxford University Press). Prize: $2500 and a silver medal
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CAROL BOLT AWARD FOR DRAMA: Michael Nathanson, Winnipeg, Manitoba, for Talk (Playwrights Canada Press). Prize: $2500 and a silver medal
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CAA AWARD FOR POETRY: Tom Dawe, Conception Bay South, Newfoundland, for Where Genesis Begins (Breakwater Books). Prize: $1000 and a silver medal
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BOOKLAND PRESS EMERGING WRITER AWARD: Rachelle Delaney, Vancouver, British Columbia, for The Ship of Lost Souls (HarperCollins Publishing). Prize: $500 and a silver medal
Shortlisted authors include the following:
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BOOKLAND PRESS EMERGING WRITER AWARD: Jesse Patrick Ferguson, Fredericton, New Brunswick, for Harmonics (Freehand Books) & Chad Pelley, St John’s, Newfoundland, for Away from Everywhere (Breakwater Books)
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CAA AWARD FOR POETRY: Joan Crate, Calgary, Alberta, for subUrban legends (Freehand Books) & Susan Musgrave, Sidney, British Columbia, for Obituary of Light: the Sangan River Meditations (Leaf Press)
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CAROL BOLT AWARD FOR DRAMA: Joan MacLeod, Victoria, British Columbia, for East of Berlin (Talonbooks Ltd) & Hannah Moscovitch, Halifax, Nova Scotia, for East of Berlin (Playwrights Canada Press)
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LELA COMMON AWARD FOR CANADIAN HISTORY: Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, Edmonton, Alberta, for Heavy Burdens on Small Shoulders (University of Alberta Press) & Jason Schneider, Kitchener, Ontario, for Whispering Pines (ECW Press)
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MOSAID TECHNOLOGIES AWARD FOR FICTION: Annabel Lyon, New Westminister, British Columbia & Ian Weir, Langley British Columbia, for Daniel O’Thunder (Douglas & McIntyre)
This year’s awards were sponsored by MOSAID Technologies, the estate of Lela Florence Common, Playwrights Canada Press, Playwrights Guild of Canada, and BookLand Press. The 2010 CanWrite! conference was held at the Harbour Towers Hotel from June 24 through 27.
FIRST ANNUAL LITERARY FESTIVAL FOR COLLINGWOOD
Collingwood, Ontario will be hosting its first annual literary festival September 10 and 11, 2010. Wordstock will be a celebration of words both on and off the page, with readings and events for children, teens and adults.
The kick off celebration, Off The Page, taking place on Friday, September 10 at the Gayety Theatre promises an exciting evening of ‘expressed word’ with theatre, music, mime and storytelling.
Authors who will be offering readings on Saturday, September 11 include nationally recognized writers John Geiger, Giles Blunt, Linwood Barclay, Maureen Jennings, Catherine Gildiner, Penn Kemp and Robert Priest. Local authors include Christine Cowley, Dorris Heffron, Carolyn Smardz-Frost, Liz Zetlin and Kristan Anderson.
The poetry hub will offer readings throughout the day plus a poetry slam hosted by David Silverberg and the 2010 Toronto Poetry Slam Team—Kiki, Relevant, David Delisca, and Fraser, with open mics throughout the day.
The new Collingwod Public Library will host puppet shows for the children as well as a concert by the Funky Mamas, and life size book characters will be wandering the Farmer’s Market.
The festival will also offer a host of workshops for aspiring writers, including: Blood, Sweat and Fears--writing with the beginner’s mind (Ruth Garrett); Ins and Outs of Getting Published (Judy Ross and Janet Lees); That’s Entertainment--translating words into images (Garry Campbell and Warren Leonhardt); Songwriting Workshops with Tyler Firestone, Aaron Garner, Jason Redman and Patrick Ballantyne; Creative Writing with Richard Scarsbrook.
Most events will be free to the public. Come on out and experience Collingwood’s inaugural literary event! For more information go to: collingwoodwordstock.com. Submitted by Harry Posner.
KAREN SOLIE WINS $75,000 GRIFFIN POETRY PRIZE
Saskatchewan-bred, Toronto-based Karen Solie won the Griffin Poetry Prize's Canadian honours on June 3, 2010. You could call Karen Solie the biggest Griffin Poetry Prize winner ever. At a gala in Toronto’s Distillery District on Thursday night, the Saskatchewan-bred, Toronto-based Solie was named winner of the Griffin’s Canadian honours, joining the ranks of past winners that include Margaret Avison, Robin Blaser and, last year, A.F. Moritz. This year, poetry-loving arts patron Scott Griffin permanently upped the cash awards that come with his prizes (one for Canadian verse, one for international) from $50,000 to $75,000, which Solie won for her work Pigeon. Ireland’s Eilean Ni Chuilleanain was honoured for Sun-fish. Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com:80/entertainment/books/article/818932--karen-solie-wins-75-000-griffin-poetry-prize
WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD
The Writers’ Union of Canada and John Gleed are pleased to announce that Sarah Roberts is the recipient of the $10,000 DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD for Wax Boats (Catlin Press), judged the best first English-language collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2009.
Judges Ivan E. Coyote, Mary Soderstrom, and David Bezmozgis said “Sarah Roberts's Wax Boats is a truly remarkable collection. Roberts exhibits tremendous versatility, writing movingly and convincingly in every conceivable voice--of the men and women, girls and boys, natives and whites who inhabit her fictional Smokecrest Island. There are stories here of loss and renewal, of strange adventures, and of acts of profound kindness. The prose is clear and evocative and flawless. Roberts is a truly gifted storyteller and Wax Boats is a mature and ambitious work of literature. It is a Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town for the modern age.”
Runner-up Deborah Willis will receive $500.
Of Deborah Willis’s Vanishing and Other Stories (Penguin) the judges had this to say: “Whether the main character is a father trying to bring his strung-out doctor daughter down to earth, a woman involved with one of her students, or a teenaged couple almost losing a five year old boy, Deborah Willis in Vanishing gives us fine stories in the tradition of Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro.”
The DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD is given in celebration of the life of Danuta Gleed, a writer whose short fiction won several awards before her death in December 1996. Danuta Gleed’s first collection of short fiction, One of the Chosen, was posthumously published by BuschekBooks. The Award is made possible through a generous donation from John Gleed, founder of JetForm Inc., in memory of his late wife, and is administered by The Writers' Union of Canada.
The Writers' Union of Canada is our country's national organization representing professional authors of books. Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well being of all writers. For more information, please visit www.writersunion.ca
League News
A NEW BENEFITS PLAN IS AVAILABLE TO OUR MEMBERS AT:
www.writerscoalition.com
The new benefits plan, the Writers' Coalition Program, was started three
years ago by Susan Swan and Deborah Windsor when Swan was chair of The Writers' Union of Canada. The new plan is run by Actra Fraternal, under Bob Underwood. It was originally designed to serve the 2,000
writers who are TWUC members but the plan has since expanded to include
artists and musicians, with a membership totalling over 18,000. Home and auto insurance can be
purchased separately from drugs and dental. For a free quote on your
home and auto insurance call 1-800-365-3387. Currently, membership is
limited to those under 71 years of age but if you join now, there is no
age limit. Premiums are expected to go down as membership increases. The
League of Canadian Poets was one of the original founding organizations
along with PEN Canada, PWAC and Access
Copyright. (For more information, see www.writerscoalition.com)
NEW COUNCIL MEMBERS AT THE LEAGUE
One of the main tasks at the annual LCP Poetry Festival and Conference was to elect the people who will serve on the League’s National Council for the upcoming year. Here are the new council members as voted in at the AGM members meeting in Toronto. Welcome to all the new and returning council members. For a full list of current council members and committees see http://www.poets.ca/linktext/council.htm. You can find the bios of each council member online in our member’s pages: http://www.poets.ca/linktext/whos.htm
Advisory Committee:
President: Joe Blades
Vice President/Membership Chair: Susan McMaster
Treasurer: Ray Mitchell
Past President: Dennis Reid
Secretary: TBD
Regional Reps:
Newfoundland/NS rep: TBD
NB/PEI rep: Kathy Mac
Quebec/Nunavut rep: Ian Ferrier
Ontario rep: Terry Ann Carter
Toronto rep: Paul Sanderson
Manitoba rep: Ariel Gordon
Saskatchewan rep: Lynda Monahan
Alberta/NWT rep: Patrick Pilarski
BC/Yukon: Hilary Peach
Associate rep: Sherrene D. Kevan
The League of Canadian Poets
192 Spadina Avenue, Suite 312
Toronto, ON M5T 2C2
Phone: 416 504 1657 / Fax: 416 504 0096
