Awards

19-Year-Old Chloe Hogan-Weihmann’s “Night Cafe” Wins $2,500 Cash Prize – The Writers Union of Canada’s 20th Annual Short Prose Competition

Via the Writers’ Union of Canada

The Writers’ Union of Canada is pleased to announce that Chloe Hogan-Weihmann has won the $2,500 cash prize for its twentieth annual Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers, for the best story under 2,500 words, with her piece “The Night Café.” The Union will submit the winning story and the eleven other shortlisted stories to three Canadian magazine publishers for their consideration.

Chloe Hogan-Weihmann is a 19-year-old university student (doing a B.Sc. in psychology) from Edmonton, Alberta, who just started writing. In her spare time she likes to drink too much coffee, read too many books, and watch too many cartoons. She is trying to learn to play guitar although she is currently impressively bad at it. She is very eager to continue with her writing.

As the Union celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, it also marks 20 years of the Short Prose Competition. The Competition aims to discover, encourage, and promote new writers of short prose who are not yet published in book format, in order to provide opportunity and exposure to developing writers. This year, twenty-four Union members donated their time and expertise to read 505 outstanding submissions and distill them into a long-list of one hundred and two stories. These stories went on to a second round of twenty-two readers who selected the finalists to pass on to the jury: Ami McKay, Rosemary Nixon, and Mark A. Rayner.

WINNER:

“The Night Café” by Chloe Hogan-Weihmann

Read more19-Year-Old Chloe Hogan-Weihmann’s “Night Cafe” Wins $2,500 Cash Prize – The Writers Union of Canada’s 20th Annual Short Prose Competition

Catharine Chen is the recipient of the Claudette Upton Scholarship

Via the Editors’ Association of Canada

The Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC) has announced that Catharine Chen is the 2012 recipient of the Claudette Upton Scholarship. The $1,000 cash award, which helps support continuing professional development in editing, will be presented during EAC’s annual conference, scheduled for June 7 to 9 in Halifax.

One might be tempted to assign Chen’s attraction to correctness in writing to the struggle of growing up with a non-traditionally spelled name: “That’s Catharine with two A’s!”—but in fact, like many excellent literary editors, Chen began her career as a creative writer. It was during her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia that Chen discovered editing was as fulfilling for her as writing, and maybe even more so. The program’s workshop model encouraged not only non-stop writing, but also the critiquing of her classmates’ writing. She enjoyed analyzing a piece, determining what it might need, dreaming up suggestions and discussing those discoveries with the author.

Read moreCatharine Chen is the recipient of the Claudette Upton Scholarship

Writers’ Trust Rewards Author for Reportage on International Barricades

Via Writers’ Trust of Canada

Marcello Di Cintio Wins the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

The Writers’ Trust of Canada announced tonight at the Politics and the Pen gala that Marcello Di Cintio has won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for Walls: Travels Along the Barricades, published by Goose Lane Editions.

The $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize is sponsored by Bell Media and supported by Politics and the Pen.

A jury composed of politician and political scientist Ed Broadbent, National Post and iPolitics.ca columnist Tasha Kheiriddin, and novelist and translator Daniel Poliquin selected the winner. Their citation reads:

When Ronald Reagan exhorted Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, it was not only a political act. As Marcello Di Cintio discovers, walls divide far more than nations. In this beautifully written reportage, the author brings readers the personal stories – gripping, haunting, humorous, and inspiring – of people living against walls around the world, from the “peaceline” of Belfast to the l’Acadie fence of Montreal.

Read moreWriters’ Trust Rewards Author for Reportage on International Barricades

2013 PWAC Writing and Editor of the Year Awards

Via the Professional Writers Association of Canada

The 2013 PWAC Writing and Editor of the Year Awards are now open for submissions. Visit http://www.pwac.ca/eventsandresources/pwacawards to review more detailed criteria and submission/nomination procedures for:

·    Features Writing Award

·    Short Articles Writing Award

·    Editor of the Year Award

Writing Awards are open to both PWAC members and non-members. The first-place winner receives $500 and, if eligible, a free one-year PWAC membership. Submissions must be mailed to the PWAC National Office, 215 Spadina Avenue, Suite 130, Toronto, ON, M5T 2C7. Deadline: entries must be received by February 28, 2013.

Read more2013 PWAC Writing and Editor of the Year Awards