Alberta Literary Awards

Last updated

The Alberta Literary Awards [1] (ALA), administered by the Writers Guild of Alberta, have been awarded annually since 1982 to recognize outstanding writing by Alberta authors. The awards honour fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, and children's literature. [2] [3] [4] [5] At the first public ALA Gala in 1994, the inaugural Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award was given to W. O. Mitchell. [6]

Contents

Alberta Literary Awards

R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature

The children’s literature category alternates yearly between picture and chapter books. The 2019 award is presented to an Alberta author of a children’s picture book published in 2017 or 2018.

Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

Awarded for a novel or collection of short fiction by an Alberta author published in the previous year. Past recipients are W. P. Kinsella, Sam Selvon, Pauline Gedge, Aritha van Herk, Mary Walters Riskin, Helen Forrester, Jacqueline Dumas, Thomas King, Greg Hollingshead, Robert Hilles, Roberta Rees, Richard Wagamese, Marion Douglas, Kristjana Gunnars, Margie Taylor, Catherine Simmons Niven, Peter Oliva, Fred Stenson, Thomas Wharton, Thomas Trofimuk, Tim Bowling, Paul Anderson, Marie Jakober, Nina Newington, Jaspreet Singh, Michael Davie, Todd Babiak, Lynn Coady, Richard Van Camp, Ali Bryan, Rudy Wiebe, Bradley Somer, Gisèle Villeneuve, Deborah Willis, and Joshua Whitehead.

Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction

Awarded for a nonfiction book by an Alberta author published in the previous year.

Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama

Awarded to a play written by an Alberta author published or produced in the previous year.

Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry

Awarded for a collection of poetry by an Alberta author published in the previous year.

James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction

Awarded to an outstanding literary short nonfiction piece by an Alberta author on any topic published in the previous year.

Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story

Awarded to an outstanding single short story by an Alberta author published in the previous year. Past recipients are Cecelia Frey, Merna Summers, Diane Schoemperlen, W. O. Mitchell, J. Jill Robinson, Greg Hollingshead, Martin Sherman, Rosemary Nixon, Fred Wah, Sally Ito, Barbara Scott, Caterina Edwards, Gloria Sawai, Sarah Murphy, Jacqueline Baker, Thomas Wharton, Laura J. Cutler, Leslie Greentree, Roberta Rees, Barb Howard, Ben Lof, Rudy Wiebe, Amy Bright, Lee Kvern, Jasmina Odor, Katie Bickell, Richard Kelly Kemick, Laurie MacFayden and Norma Dunning.

Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award

Named after the writer Jon Whyte, this award has been presented to an outstanding unpublished essay by an Alberta author since 1992. [7]

Book Prizes

Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize

The Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize was established by the City Council in 1995 and is administered by the Writers' Guild of Alberta. The prize was renamed in 2011 after the late Robert Kroetsch, who was best known for his Governor General's Award-winning novel, The Studhorse Man.

City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize

Given out as part of the Calgary Awards, the City of Calgary W. O. Mitchell Book Prize is awarded in honour of acclaimed Calgary writer W. O. Mitchell and recognizes literary achievement by Calgary authors. The prize was established in 1996 and is coordinated through a partnership between The City of Calgary and the Writers' Guild of Alberta. Past recipients include: Lisa Chistensen, Elspeth Cameron, Richard Harrison, Barbara Scott, JoAnn McCaig, Andrew Nikiforuk, Paula da Costa, W. Mark Giles, Jan Lars Jensen, Christopher Wiseman, Rona Altrows, Diane Guichon, Gordon Pengilly, Clem Martini and Olivier Martini, Suzette Mayr, Marcello Di Cintio, Tyler Trafford, Chris Turner, Eugene Stickland, Joan Crate, and Taylor Lambert.

Golden Pen Award

The Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to acknowledge the lifetime achievements of outstanding Alberta writers. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] The 2019 recipient was Bob Stallworthy. [16] Vivian Hansen received this award in 2020 while Chris Wiseman was chosen in 2022. Past recipients are W. O. Mitchell, Grant MacEwan, Rudy Wiebe, Myrna Kostash, Robert Kroetsch, Merna Summers, Aritha van Herk, Fred Stenson (writer), George Melnyk, Alice Major, Betty Jane Hegerat, Greg Hollingshead, Candas Jane Dorsey and Cecelia Frey. [17] [18]

The Kemosa Scholarship for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Mothers Who Write

Since 2018, the Writers Guild of Alberta has awarded three annual scholarships to support First Nations, Métis and Inuit Mothers in their writing careers. [1]

Past awards

Related Research Articles

Gregory Hollingshead, CM is a Canadian novelist. He was formerly a professor of English at the University of Alberta, and he lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Myrna Kostash is a Canadian writer and journalist. She has published several non-fiction books and written for many Canadian magazines including Chatelaine. Of Ukrainian descent, she was born in Edmonton, Alberta and educated at the University of Alberta, the University of Washington, and the University of Toronto. She resides in Edmonton, Alberta.

Richard Stevenson was a Canadian teacher and poet. Stevenson taught English at Lethbridge College in Lethbridge, Alberta, and also taught in Nigeria for a few years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aritha Van Herk</span> Canadian writer, critic, editor, public intellectual, and university professor

Aritha van Herk,, is a Canadian writer, critic, editor, public intellectual, and university professor. Her work often includes feminist themes, and depicts and analyzes the culture of western Canada.

University of Alberta Press is a publishing house and a division of the University of Alberta that engages in academic publishing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marina Endicott</span> Canadian writer

Marina Endicott is a Canadian novelist and short story writer. Her novel, Good to a Fault, won the 2009 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Canada and the Caribbean and was a finalist for the Giller Prize. Her next, The Little Shadows, was long-listed for the Giller and short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award. Close to Hugh, was long-listed for the Giller Prize and named one of CBC's Best Books of 2015. Her latest, The Difference, won the City of Edmonton Robert Kroetsch prize. It was published in the US by W.W. Norton as The Voyage of the Morning Light in June 2020.

Thomas Wharton is a Canadian writer from Edmonton, Alberta.

Alice Major is a Canadian poet, writer, and essayist, who served as poet laureate of Edmonton, Alberta.

Alberta Views is a Calgary, Alberta regional magazine, established in 1997, that covers political, social and cultural issues in the province of Alberta. It is published 10 times annually and its monthly print run was 15,000 copies by 2016. Its monthly readership in 2016 was 76,000. Alberta Views was named Canadian Magazine of the Year at the 2009 National Magazine Awards. John Ralston Saul has called Alberta Views "the new model for what a magazine can be in Canada."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Sidonie Sobat</span> Canadian writer and international presenter (born 1961)

Gail Sidonie Sobat is a Canadian writer, educator, singer and performer. She is the founder and coordinator of YouthWrite, a writing camp for children, a non-profit and charitable society. Her poetry and fiction, for adults and young adults, are known for her controversial themes. For 2015, Sobat was one of two writers in residence with the Metro Edmonton Federation of Libraries. She is also the founder of the Spoken Word Youth Choir in Edmonton.

The Writers' Guild of Alberta (WGA) was founded in 1980 as a non-profit organization for writers based in Alberta, Canada. It claims to be the largest provincial writers' organization in Canada, representing approximately 1,000 writers throughout the province.

NeWest Press is a Canadian publishing company. Established in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1977, the company grew out of a literary magazine, NeWest Review, which had been launched in 1975. Early members of the collective that founded the company included writer Rudy Wiebe and University of Alberta academics Douglas Barbour, George Melnyk, and Diane Bessai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Micheline Maylor</span> Canadian poet and academic

Micheline Maylor is a Canadian poet, academic, critic and editor.

Cecelia Frey is a Canadian poet, novelist, and short story writer. Her works have appeared in literary magazines and in numerous anthologies, and broadcast on CBC Radio as well as produced by the Women's Television Network. She was the 2018 recipient of the Golden Pen Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dandelion Magazine was an independent literary magazine published in Calgary, Alberta between 1975 and 2011. In its day, according to The Literary History of Alberta, it was considered Alberta’s leading literary magazine. It started as an annual publication and then became biannual. Over the years, Dandelion featured fiction, poetry, visual art and reviews. Contributors consisted of emerging and established Canadian authors including Joan Clark, Edna Alford, Carol Shields, Robert Hilles, W. P. Kinsella, Robert Kroetsch, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Aritha van Herk, and Karen Connelly, among others.

Rona Altrows is a Canadian writer and editor. Her books include short fiction, a children's book, and two literary anthologies. Her stories and essays have appeared in literary magazines and newspapers across Canada.

Jon Whyte was a Canadian poet, curator and non-fiction writer in Banff, Alberta. He believed poetry was a "public act" and that it informs and educates in a way almost no other medium can. He was an advocate for the Canadian West and specifically the Rockies in both poetry, non-fiction, and his activities as a conservationist. Even today, his name is considered by many to be synonymous with the Canadian Rockies.

References

  1. 1 2 "WGA Alberta Literary Awards". WGA website. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  2. ↑ "Bradley Somer, Andrew Nikoforuk among Alberta Literary Award winners". Calgary Herald website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  3. ↑ "Six Edmonton writers win Alberta Literary Awards". Edmonton Journal website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  4. ↑ "Winners of the 2015 Alberta Literary Awards announced". Quill and Quire website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  5. ↑ "2018 Alberta Literary Awards Winners". Alberta Magazine Publishers Association website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  6. ↑ "The Writer's Life: For 20 years the Writers Guild of Alberta has encouraged and enabled writers to pursue the Writers Life". Alberta Views website. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  7. ↑ McGoogan, Ken (1993-06-12). "Jon Whyte essay contest is back". Calgary Herald. p. 27. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
  8. ↑ "Betty Jane Hegerat named recipient of the Golden Pen Award". Church of the Cross News. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  9. ↑ "Candas Jane Dorsey receives Golden Pen Award". Boyle Macauley News website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  10. ↑ "Honouring People and Places in Our City: Myrna Kostash" (PDF). City of Edmonton website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  11. ↑ "Collections: Myrna Kostash". University of Regina Library website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  12. ↑ "A hat trick for Aritha van Herk". University of Calgary news website. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  13. ↑ "W.O. Mitchell 1914-1998)". Alberta Champions Society in Recognition of Community Enrichment website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  14. ↑ "Writer Robert Kroetsch dies in car accident in Alberta at 83". The Globe and Mail website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  15. ↑ "Canadian writer Robert Kroetsch killed in car accident". National Post website. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  16. ↑ "Bob Stallworthy is awarded the Golden Pen Award". Frontenac House website. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  17. ↑ Volmers, Eric (5 June 2020). "Calgary poet Vivian Hansen wins Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement". Calgary Herald. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
  18. ↑ Kartz, Ellen (10 June 2022). "The Writers' Guild of Alberta Announces the 2022 Golden Pen Award Recipient". The Writer's Guild of Alberta. Retrieved 22 June 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.