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Congratulations to the 2010 Open Season Awards Winners

Congratulations to Lorri Neilsen Glenn (Halifax, N.S.), Tricia Dower (Victoria, B.C.), and Melissa Jacques (Edmonton, AB) on winning The Malahat Review’s inaugural 2010 Open Season Awards in the Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction categories respectively.

Poetry

Lorri Neilsen Glenn’s winning poem, "You think of Meister Eckhart," Judges Lorna Crozier and Patrick Lane said: "this poem reminds us again of poetry’s connection with song. How smoothly the phrases move through the mind and into music. It’s a small tour de force of sound and meaning, lyricism at its most brilliant."

Lorri Neilsen Glenn’s forthcoming collection is Lost Gospels (Brick Books, 2010). A poet, essayist, and ethnographer, Lorri has published four collections of poetry, several books on literacy and inquiry, and is currently working on a collection of essays and an anthology about mothers. Lorri has been writer in residence at St. Peter’s College and Los Parronales, and scholar in residence at Edith Cowan University, James Cook University, among other locations. Lorri works with youth writers and participates in the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia mentorship program. She has taught writing in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Chile, and across Canada, most recently at Nova Scotia’s Great Blue Heron Workshop. Lorri’s poetry and non-fiction have appeared in Grain, Prairie Fire, CV2, Arc, Event, The Antigonish Review, as well as in several anthologies. She served as Halifax’s Poet Laureate for 2005-2009.

Short Fiction

Of Tricia Dower’s short story "Halloween 1955," our judges said it "is charged with energy, the second-person monologue maintained beautifully. The shift in point of view in the second-half is risky, but it works very well, balancing the resolution against the opening. A fine piece of fiction by a writer we should keep our eye on."

Tricia Dower was a business executive before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Her short fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, Hemispheres, Cicada, NEO, Insolent Rudder, and Big Muddy. She lives and writes in Victoria, B.C., where she served on the board of the Victoria School of Writing. Her first book, Silent Girl, a collection of short stories inspired by Shakespeare, was published in 2008 by Inanna and long-listed for the 2009 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. She is at work on her second book, a novel.

Creative Nonfiction

Melissa Jacques’piece of creative nonfiction, "Call and Response," was described by our judges as "brilliantly done, the emotional tone perfectly rendered, the description acting as a precise metaphor to the characters. The dialogue never betrays the lives being rendered here. Everything is in balance, the story being told extremely well. All told it is a truly excellent piece of work."

In addition to teaching popular culture and creative writing at the University of Alberta, Melissa Jacques is an avid collector of books, shoes, and chairs.

Lorna Crozier has received the Governal General’s, the Canadian Authors’ Association, and two Pat Lowther Awards for poetry. A Distinguished Professor at the University of Victoria and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, she has published 14 books of poetry and has received two honourary doctorates for her contribution to Canadian literature. Her poems have been translated into several languages, including a book-length translation in French and another in Spanish, and she has read in every continent, except Antarctica. Her memoir, Small Beneath the Sky, was published in 2009.

Patrick Lane lives and works on the Saanich Peninsula outside Victoria with his companion Lorna Crozier. He is the author of many books of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. His work has been translated into many languages. His recent novel Red Dog Red Dog has been listed for the Dublin Orange Prize for 2009, and his memoir, There Is A Season, has been chosen by MacLeans Magazine as the 4th best piece of non-fiction published in the last decade.

We would also like to congratulate the 2010 Open Season Awards finalists:

In poetry: Julie Bruck, Grace Cockburn, Barry Dempster, Colin Fulton, Marilyn Gear Pilling, Ann Graham Walker, Joshua Grant, elena e. johnson, Chantel Lavoie, Rhona McAdam, Kyeren Regehr, Jason Rotstein, Brenda Schmidt, Tara Wohlberg, Stephanie Yorke, and Patricia Young.

In fiction: W. Brandts, Erin Fisher, Lee Kvern, and Joanna Lilley.

In creative nonfiction: Lisa K. Buchanan, Daniel Goldsmith, and Amanda K. Hale.

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