Finalists for the Writersí Trust Awards were announced today. The nominees include my picks: Rawi Hage, Kenneth J. Harvey, and Noah Richler.
The Writersí Trust Awards are one of the largest awards moneywise that fiction and non-fiction writers can receive. There are 8 awards in total and they will be presented on Wednesday, March 7, in Toronto at a gala-gala do.
Total prize money is $123,000. Bang zoom.
Quote: The press release says:
“This yearís nominated titles chronicle the richness of life in Canada and around the globe. The novels are set amidst Tokyoís vibrant nightlife, Lebanonís civil war, and Ireland during the calamitous Potato Famine. There are memoirs that take readers back to a 1930s Mennonite farming community, to the destabilization and eventual collapse of Yugoslavia, and to 1949, when a fearless young woman travelled on horseback from Quebec to the West Coast.”
Book lovers have the chance to win a set of this yearís nominated titles by visiting www.writerstrust.com. Goodness knows where on the site you go to find out how to enter. It’s a poorly designed site with a lot of images and crazy navigation.
If you want to enter, let me save you to the trouble of finding the details: To enter, email your name and address to info@writerstrust.com
More about the Awards
THE ROGERS WRITERSí TRUST FICTION PRIZE ($15,000)
Peter Behrens (Brooklin, Maine) for The Law of Dreams, published by House of Anansi Press
Rawi Hage (Montreal) for DeNiroís Game, published by House of Anansi Press ** I want Rawi to win. **
Catherine Hanrahan (Vancouver) for Lost Girls and Love Hotels, published by Viking Canada
Kenneth J. Harvey (Burnt Head, Newfoundland) for Inside, published by Random House Canada ** I want to read this book.**
Mary Lawson (Kingston-upon-Thames, United Kingdom) for The Other Side of the Bridge, published by Knopf Canada
THE NEREUS WRITERSí TRUST NON-FICTION PRIZE ($15,000)
Charlotte Gray (Ottawa) for Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell, published by HarperCollins Publishers: A Phyllis Bruce Book
Barbara Kingscote (Innisfail, Alberta) for Ride the Rising Wind: One Womanís Journey Across Canada, published by NeWest Press
Noah Richler (Toronto) for This Is My Country, Whatís Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada, published by McClelland & Stewart **Great event at the Vancouver Writers Festival. Go Noah. **
Dragan Todorovic (Coventry, United Kingdom) for The Book of Revenge: A Blues for Yugoslavia, published by Random House Canada
Rudy Wiebe (Edmonton) for Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest, published by Knopf Canada
THE WRITERSí TRUST OF CANADA/McCLELLAND & STEWART JOURNEY PRIZE ($10,000)
(The Journey Prize recognizes the best short story or excerpt from a novel-in-progress by a new and developing writer.)
Heather Birrell (Toronto) for ìBriannaSusannaAlana,î published in The New Quarterly
Lee Henderson (Vancouver) for ìConjugation,î published in Border Crossings
Martin West (Calgary) for ìCretacea,î published in PRISM international