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Can Lit Awards
Articles in Short:
Canadian Literary Awards
Credit: www.canadianencyclopedia.ca & www
ePost by D. Allard
Awards:
Governor General’s Literary Awards
http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggla/default.asp
Governor General’s Literary Awards were first presented in 1936 by the CANADIAN AUTHORS ASSN. The CAA did the judging itself until 1944, when an independent Awards Board was established. In 1959 the CANADA COUNCIL undertook to administer the awards and to provide at least 6 prizes of $1000 each for fiction, nonfiction, and drama or poetry in English and French (previous awards had been for works in English only). That year the category of juvenile literature, which had been established in 1948, was dropped. In 1971 the council assumed responsibility for appointing two 9-member juries - one anglophone and one francophone - drawn from among experienced writers, academics and literary critics. The cash award was raised from $5000 to $10 000 in 1989. New categories have also been added: a separate category for drama (1981), children’s literature - text, children’s literature - illustration and translation (all 1988).
Like any prize, the Gov Gen’s Awards are controversial from time to time; contemporary judgements do not always stand the test of time. There is a general complaint that writers have not always won for their best work, and there are specific criticisms (eg, the failure of Northrop FRYE’s The Great Code to win an award in 1983). Some winners have refused to accept the award for political reasons. Nevertheless the Gov Gen’s Awards are the pre-eminent LITERARY PRIZE offered for single works in Canada, and they serve to reward Canadian writers as well as to publicize Canadian writing through the ceremonies held in various centers across the country.
The Scotiabank Giller Prize: www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca
The Scotiabank Giller Prize is Canada’s most lucrative LITERARY PRIZE. The prize of $40 000 is awarded every November to an English Canadian novel or short-story collection. The annual award was established in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch, in honor of his late wife, journalist Doris Giller. Scotia bank became a co-sponsor of the award in 2005. Eligible books are nominated by publishers and then short-listed and ranked by a celebrity panel of prestigious judges. Past juries have been composed of such well-known Canadian writers as Margaret ATWOOD, Alistair MACLEOD, David Adams RICHARDS, and M. G. VASSANJI, who himself won the first Giller Prize in 1994. Other past winners include Alice MUNRO, Mordecai RICHLER, and Rohinton MISTRY. Public interest in the award has been heightened by the “Guess the Scotiabank Giller Prize” contest, promoted through public libraries across the country. The glamour associated with the award is further enhanced by its presentation at a lavish dinner and star-studded gala, broadcast on television.
Griffin Trust Prize for Poetry: www.griffinpoetryprize.com/home.php
The Griffin Trust was created to serve and encourage excellence in poetry written in English anywhere in the world. The Griffin Trust is a Canadian initiative founded in April, 2000 by Scott Griffin, its Chairman, with Trustees Margaret Atwood, Robert Hass, Michael Ondaatje, Robin Robertson and David Young. The purpose of The Griffin Trust is to raise public awareness of the crucial role poetry must play in society’s cultural life.
The Griffin Trust’s support for poets, for poetry, and for the publishers of poetry will include two annual literary prizes worth $40,000 each. These prizes will be awarded annually for collections of poetry published in English during the preceding year. One prize will go to a living Canadian poet, the other to a living poet from any other country, which may include Canada. Qualified judges will be selected annually by the Trustees and the prizes will be awarded in the spring of each year.
League of Poets: www.poets.ca
The Canadian Booksellers Association: A complete and searchable list of Canadian Booksellers is available from The Canadian Booksellers Association website located at: www.cbabook.org/find/default.asp
Canadian Literary Information Resource: www.canlit.ca/resources/
CBC Literary Awards: www.radio-canada.ca/prixlitteraires/
The Writers’ Trust: www.writerstrust.com. The Writers’ Trust believes that the remarkable talents of Canadian writers must not only be widely recognized and applauded; they must be rewarded. Our annual awards ensure that our writers’ powerful voices will continue to be heard, at home and abroad. Awards provide writers with the time and resources needed to hone their craft. Awards inspire other authors to emulate them, expanding the nation’s garden of literary excellence.
Canadian Library Association: www.cla.ca/awards/bookaw.htm. Literary and graphic excellence in books for children and young adults is encouraged and promoted through the Book Awards program of the Canadian Library Association. These three prestigious awards are presented annually.
Canadian Awards Index
www.bookcentre.ca/awards/award_ind/index.shtml
Canadian Authors Assoc.: www.canauthors.org/awards/winners.html
Writers Union: http://www.writersunion.ca/
Culture Canada:
http://www.culture.ca/ataglance-coupdoeil-e/contests-concours_200611.html
Canada’s Major National Literary Awards
(Library and Archives Canada) www.collectionscanada.ca/caninfo/ep08.htm
BookClubs.ca: www.bookclubs.ca/
New Passages: www.nwpassages.com/awards.asp
Alberta Book Awards: http://www.writersguild.ab.ca/programs/alberta_book_awards.asp. Awards administered by the Alberta Writer’s Guild. They include the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry.
Award Nominee: A nomination for an award is recognition of exceptional work by a poet. Not every nominee can take home the prize so we have created this ‘award’ so that you can find some of the titles selected as finalists for various awards.
Canadian Literary Award:
The Canadian Literary Awards were created in 1979 by writer and broadcaster Robert Weaver. This year (2002), the awards have formed a new partnership with Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and The Canada Council for the Arts to seek out and promote new Canadian writers. In addition, this is the first time the French and English networks have combined their literary awards in a major commitment to talent development in both languages. Past winners of the Award represent a who’s who of Canadian authors. Recipients have included Michael Ondaatje, Carol Shields, Barry Callaghan, Bonnie Burnard, Gail Anderson-Dargatz, Janice Kulyk Keefer, Gwendolyn MacEwan, Susan Musgrave and Shauna Singh Baldwin.
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: One of the B. C. Book Prizes - $2,000.Awarded to the author of the best work of poetry. The author must be a B.C./Yukon resident or have lived in B.C. or the Yukon for three of the past five years. No anthologies or “best of” collections. The book may have been published anywhere. Supported by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Livesay_Poetry_Prize
Gerald Lampert Memorial Award: www.poets.ca/linktext/awards/lampert.htm. The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is given in the memory of Gerald Lampert, an arts administrator who organized authors’ tours and took a particular interest in the work of new writers. The award recognizes the best first book of poetry published by a Canadian in the preceding year. The Award carries a prize of $1,000 and is sponsored by the League of Canadian Poets. It is presented each year at the League’s Annual General Meeting in May or June, with the shortlist announced in April.
Jack Chalmers Award for Poetry: http://www.canauthors.org/awards/poetry.html. The CAA Awards for Poetry and Drama (for any medium) were funded by Harlequin Enterprises of Toronto from 1975 to 1997. In 1998, they were funded by a member of the CAA who chooses to remain anonymous.
Throughout their existence, these CAA Awards for Adult Literature have been designed as objective rewards for excellence. Judging is carried out by panels selected in confidence. No short lists are published. The Journal (CBC) has referred to them as “The major awards given annually by authors to authors.”
These awards include the Jack Chalmers Poetry Award
Manitoba Book Awards: http://www.mbwriter.mb.ca/mwapa/mwapa.html
The Manitoba Writers’ Guild will with the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, awards Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards. These awards include the following:
McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award
Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award
Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction
Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book
The John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer and others.
McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award: http://www.mbwriter.mb.ca/mwapa/award_young_people.html. The McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award is presented to the Manitoba writer whose adult English language book is judged the best written. The book must have been published in the previous year. The author receives a cash award of $3,000, donated by McNally Robinson Booksellers.
The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is given for a book of poetry by a Canadian woman published in the preceding year, and is in memory of the late Pat Lowther, whose career was cut short by her untimely death in 1975. The award carries a $1,000 prize. It is presented each year at the League’s Annual General Meeting in May or June, with the shortlist announced in April. www.poets.ca/linktext/awards/lowther.htm
Quebec Writers Federation Awards QWF (Quebec Writers’ Federation) www.qwf.org was born when members of FEWQ (Federation of English Writers of Quebec) and QSPELL (Quebec Society for the Promotion of English Language Literature) voted in 1998 to unite their activities. The two organizations had been co-funded by SODEC since 1994 and shared an office at the Atwater Library. They also shared similar mandates and had already collaborated on joint projects, such as Write pour Ecrire, Tongue-tied/langue-liee and the Irving Layton Tribute, as well as the initial Writers & Writing series of literary readings.
QSPELL http://quebecbooks.qwf.org was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1987 and was best known for its annual literary awards. QSPELL Prizes, which in future will be called the QWF Prizes, now include the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, the A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry, the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction, the First Book Award, a Translation Prize, and the Community Award.
Saskatchewan Book Awards: www.bookawards.sk.ca/
The Saskatchewan Book Awards were established in 1993 by the joint efforts of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, Saskatchewan Publishers Group and Saskatchewan Library Association. Saskatchewan Book Awards Inc. was incorporated in 1994. These awards include the Anne Szumigalski Poetry Award and others.
The Atlantic Poetry Prize: www.writers.ns.ca/competitions.html. For full-length books of adult poetry written by Atlantic Canadians, and published as a whole for the first time in the previous calendar year.
The Snapshot Press Tanka Collection Competition:
www.snapshotpress.co.uk/tanka_competition_results.htm
Toronto Book Awards: www.toronto.ca/book_awards/index.htm
The Toronto Book Awards were first presented by Toronto City Council in 1974 to honour authors of books of literary and artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto. These annual awards offer $15,000 in prize money. Each shortlisted author (usually four to six) receives $1,000 and the winning author is awarded the remainder. Previous winners include Margaret Atwood, Robertson Davies, Timothy Findley, Camilla Gibb, Katherine Govier, A.B. McKillop, Anne Michaels and Michael Ondaatje.
Trillium Book Award: www.culture.gov.on.ca/english/culdiv/cultind/trillium.htm. In 1994, the prize was expanded to include the Prix Trillium, a separate prize for Ontario’s francophone writers and their publishers.
The award offers a total of $12,000 to the winning author plus a prize of $2,500 to their publisher. The English and French prizes are identical, a winner is chosen in each language. The publishers of all Trillium Book Award finalists receive a grant for the book’s promotion prior to the announcement of the winner. The Minister of Culture announces the award winner as chosen by the respective juries at a special event traditionally held in spring.
The Trillium Award is open to books in any genre: fiction, non-fiction, drama, children’s books, and poetry. Anthologies, new editions, re-issues and translations are not eligible. Three jury members per language judge the submissions, select the shortlist and the winning title. The jury is composed of writers and other members of the literary community.
Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador: www.writersalliance.nf.ca/. The Writers Alliance administers four provincial book awards, presented bi-annually on alternate years. Non-Fiction and poetry alternate with fiction and children’s literature/young adult. Only books written by residents of Newfoundland and Labrador are eligible. The awards are presented at Government House, usually on Canada Book Day, under the patronage of the Lieutenant Governor.
The Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards are administered by the Writers Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador under the distinguished patronage of the Lieutenant-Governor. They are financed mainly by corporate and private sponsors, each of whom contributes $3000 toward the administration of the awards, which includes a cash prize of $1000 for the winners.
