NEWSWIRE

Writers' Trust of Canada honours
four York degree holders with prizes

Four writers with York connections won lucrative literary awards and recognition at the fifth annual Writers' Trust of Canada awards presentation March 1.

Joseph Boyden (left) won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, worth $15,000, for Three Day Road, a novel about a Cree sniper in the First World War. Boyden graduated with a BA from York in 1991. Three Day Road is his first novel and was a finalist for the 2005 Governor General's Award for Fiction.

Matt Shaw (right) won the Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, worth $10,000, for “Matchbook for a Mother's Hair,” a short story published in Exile: The Literary Quarterly. "I attribute much of my personal success to the Creative Writing Program's professors, including director Priscila Uppal," Shaw said. "She first recommended that the story be published to [former York professor] Barry Callaghan. Creative Writing programs don't get much attention, and what attention they do get is sometimes critical; however, without the assistance of these wonderful teachers and fellow students, my abilities would not have progressed as quickly."

The Journey Prize is made possible by James A. Michener's donation of his Canadian royalty earnings from his 1988 novel, Journey. It is awarded to a new and developing writer for a short story or excerpt from a novel-in-progress published in a Canadian literary journal. Exile: The Literary Quarterly receives $2,000 for publishing the winning story. Shaw graduated with a BA in English and creative writing from York in 2005 and is working on a novel, An Everyday Unhappiness, and a collection of poetry/short fiction. A scholarship student, Shaw won two President's Creative Writing Prizes while he was at York.

Rohinton Mistry (right), 2003 York honorary doctorate recipient, won the Timothy Findley Award, worth $15,000, awarded to a male writer in mid-career for a body of work. (Photo courtesy of www.eyeonbooks.com.)

Bernard Ostry, a 2002 York honorary doctorate recipient, won the the Writers' Trust Award for Distinguished Contribution for long-standing involvement with the Writers' Trust.

The 2006 Writers' Trust Awards event, held in the Jane Mallett Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, was sponsored by Sun Life Financial and The Globe and Mail. The awards are funded by corporate, foundation, and individual sponsors.