Contests

2016 Open Season Award Judges

Russell Thornton - Poetry Judge

Russell ThorntonRussell Thornton’s most recent book, The Hundred Lives (Quattro, 2014), was shortlisted for the 2015 Griffin Poetry Prize. His Birds, Metals, Stones & Rain (Harbour, 2013) was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the Raymond Souster Award, and the Dorothy Livesay BC Book Prize. His previous books are The Fifth Window (Thistledown, 2000), A Tunisian Notebook (Seraphim, 2002), House Built of Rain (Harbour, 2003), shortlisted for the Dorothy Livesay BC Book Prize and the ReLit Award, and The Human Shore (Harbour, 2006). Thornton’s poems have appeared widely in Canadian literary journals and anthologies, among them Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry, Open Wide a Wilderness: Canadian Nature Poems, and The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2012, andhave appeared several times on Vancouver buses as part of Poetry In Transit.

Kathy Page - Fiction Judge

Kathy PageKathy Page’s collection of stories, Paradise & Elsewhere, was nominated for the 2014 Giller Prize, and was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson  Prize. She is the author of seven novels, including Alphabet (nominated for a Governor General's Award in 2005), The Story of My Face (long-listed for the 2002 Orange Prize), and The Find, a ReLit finalist in 2010. Frankie Styne and the Silver Man, her novel about a teenage mother and a misanthropic writer of horror fiction, is forthcoming with Biblioasis in 2015, and another collection of stories will appear in 2016. Page has spent much of her life in the U.K., and has worked at universities in England, Finland and Estonia. She moved to Canada in 2001 and teaches part-time and Vancouver Island University.

Fiona Tinwei Lam - Creative Nonfiction Judge

Fiona LamFiona Tinwei Lam has authored two poetry books, Intimate Distances and Enter the Chrysanthemum and the children’s book, The Rainbow Rocket. Her poetry and prose appear in over 24 anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2010 and Slice Me Some Truth: An Anthology of Canadian Non-Fiction. She co-edited the nonfiction anthology, Double Lives: Writing and Motherhood, and edited The Bright Well: Contemporary Canadian Poetry about Facing Cancer. Her poems have twice been chosen for BC’s Poetry in Transit program. She is an occasional contributor to The Tyee online news magazine. Her video poems have been screened locally and internationally. She currently teaches at SFU Continuing Studies. Visit her website here.