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Winners Announcement Archives
2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000
The
2004 John V. Hicks Manuscript Awards
The Saskatchewan Writers Guild (SWG) is pleased to announce that Daniel
Scott Tysdal of Moose Jaw is the winner of the Fifth Annual John V.
Hicks Long Manuscript Award. His manuscript of poetry was
titled Predicting The Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a
Potentially Dangerous Method.
Tysdal received the $1,000 award at the John V. Hicks Luncheon on 16
October 2004 during the SWG’s Fall Conference in Saskatoon.
Tysdal then read from his work and wowed the audience, who burst into
spontaneous applause during parts of the program and who gave him a
lengthy and enthusiastic ovation at the end of it.
Tysdal's manuscript was selected by two respected writers: George
Elliott Clarke and Carole Glasser Langille.
Named in honour of the eminent Saskatchewan poet who died in 1999, the
award recognizes excellence in unpublished book-length manuscripts by
Saskatchewan writers. The John V. Hicks Award is supported by a
financial commitment by Weyerhaeuser Canada.
The award rotates between the genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and
literary non-fiction. This year an outstanding book-length
manuscript of poetry was honoured.
Judges’
Comments on the Winner's Manuscript
This poet recognizes and deconstructs—playfully—the patented absurdity
of convential language. In this manuscript, the poet employs
academic, literary, and pop cultural terms, references, discourse, and
images to underscore the implicit argument here that standard semantic
structures—rhetorics—obscure Truth and, thus, Justice. Yet, for
all their high-minded, critical jouissance, the lyrics are lively with
accessible puns, jokes, games, and satire. By problematizing and
exploiting the superficial ease of communication, the poet reminds us
that language must never be taken for granted, but demands our
respectful attention.
George Elliott Clarke
*******
Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough Using a Potentially
Dangerous Method is intelligent, intriguing, innovative, and
bold. Praises for his meditation on Leonard Cohen, and his poem
"Pictures of Archie: Riverdale at This Dreamy Hour."
"Now the tradition of rooms has always essentially been to ensnare
ghosts," the poet writes. The reader can spend many hours
wandering through the rooms of these poems and continually bump into
surprises.
Carole Langille
Biographical
Notes on Winner
Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in 1978, Daniel Scott Tysdal was
raised on a small grain and poultry farm south of Moose Jaw.
Active in both theatre and athletics in high school, Daniel began
writing seriously while completing his undergraduate degree in English
at the University of Regina.
Daniel has worked as a bartender, groundskeeper, and English teacher,
and he is presently completing his MA in English through Acadia
University. His article on the short fiction of Raymond Carver and
David Foster Wallace is set for publication in the upcoming issue of
the Wascana Review.
Daniel’s poetry has appeared in a handful of Canadian literary journals
and, also, has aired on CBC radio. In 2003, his poem, “An Experiment in
Form*,” received honourable mention at the National Magazine Awards.
Daniel’s manuscript, Predicting the Next Big Advertising Breakthrough
Using a Potentially Dangerous Method, is a collection of encounters
with contemporary events and culture. Filled with meditations on such
figures and activities as ‘the living dead’ and Texas Hold ‘Em,
Predicting catalogues the experience and expression afforded by
habitats as diverse as bukkake sessions and art galleries, postcards
and Missing posters. Daniel’s work, in this sense, plays with the forms
insinuated by the canonical and the mainstream.
As his colleague Professor Holdenried succinctly asserts, “Predicting
strives valiantly to hyperbolise our passion for the visual, the
pop-cultural, and the theoretical, but, as a true sign of our times, it
achieves instead the most studied understatement.”
Biographical
Notes on Judges
George Elliott Clarke
George Elliott Clarke a poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter,
editor, literary critic, and professor of English. He has won
numerous awards, including the Portia White Prize for Artistic
Achievement ($25,000 from the Nova Scotia Arts Council), a Bellagio
Center Fellowship, the Outstanding Writer in Film and Television Award
(2000) and two honorary doctorates: a Doctor of Laws degree (Dalhousie
University, 1999) and a Doctor of Letters degree (University of New
Brunswick, 2000). In 2001 he won the Governor General's Award for
English Poetry for Execution Poems. His most recent book, George
and Rue, was published in January 2004 by HarperCollins.
Carole Glasser Langille
Carole Glasser Langille writes poetry, children's literature, and
literary non-fiction. Her second book of poetry, In Cannon Cave,
was nominated for a Governor General's Award and the Atlantic Poetry
Prize. Her most recent book of poems, Late In A Slow Time was published
in 2003. Her children's book, Where the Wind Sleeps, was
selected "Our Choice" by Canadian Children's Book Centre and her
most recent children's book, Interview With A Stick Collector,
was published in June of 2004. The manuscript for her memoir (I
Know What The Young Girl Knew) has just been completed.
2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000
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The
2003 John V. Hicks Manuscript Awards
The Saskatchewan Writers Guild (SWG) is
pleased to announce the recipients of the Fourth Annual John V. Hicks
Manuscript Awards. The winners are Robert Calder
(Saskatoon) for "A Richer Dust Concealed"; Pat Krause (Regina) for
“Acts of Love”; and Allan Safarik (Dundurn) for “Notes From the
Outside.” The three, who each receive $1,000, were selected
by judges Denise Chong, Ottawa, ON, and George Fetherling, Vancouver,
BC.
Named in honour of the eminent
Saskatchewan poet who died in 1999, the awards recognize excellence in
unpublished book-length manuscripts by Saskatchewan writers. They
rotate between the genres of poetry, fiction, drama, and literary
non-fiction; this year outstanding book-length manuscripts of literary
non-fiction were honoured. The awards are supported by a
four-year financial commitment by Weyerhaeuser Canada.
The awards will be officially presented
by a representative of Weyerhaeuser at the John V. Hicks Luncheon,
which will be held on 18 October 2003 during the SWG’s Fall Conference
and AGM in Regina. As part of the luncheon program, the three winners
will read from their work. This luncheon is open to the public;
pre-registration is required. For more information or to register
call 757-6310.
Robert Calder, who teaches at the
University of Saskatchewan, received the 1989 Governor General's
Literary Award for Non-Fiction for his book Willie: The Life of W.
Somerset Maugham. Denise Chong says of his manuscript that it is
"Thoroughly researched, engaging, and written with
clarity."
Award-winning author Pat Krause is in
her seventh decade on earth and her third decade as an apprentice
writer. George Fetherling says that her manuscript is
"cleverly structured and written in simple yet incisive prose."
Acclaimed author Allan Safarik is the
author of ten books of poetry and a wide range of other materials. In
the spring of 2004, Thistledown Press will be bringing out Blood Of
Angels, his most recent collection of poetry. Denise Chong says of his
manuscript that it contains "fresh writing, including a discriminating
eye, a sometimes sharp tongue and, sometimes, a penchant for roguish
characters."
The Saskatchewan Writers Guild, founded
in 1969, is a province-wide non-profit organization serving almost 600
member writers. The SWG works to create an environment in which writing
and writers flourish, by fostering excellence in writing, by raising
the public profile of writers and their work, and by making writers and
their work accessible to all levels of education.
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The 2002 John V. Hicks Manuscript Awards
Two winners of the John V. Hicks
Manuscript Award for full-length plays were announced in the fall of
2002. The awards were presented to Pam Bustin for Saddles in
the Rain and Mansel Robinson for Scorched Ice.
Judges’ Comments
Pam Bustin’s Saddles in the Rain
Kathryn is a struggling artist trying to
make it in the big city. A desperate phone call from her younger
sister forces her to return to her wounded family and releases a
lifetime of painful memories. Saddles in the Rain is an honest,
hopeful look at facing your demons and forgiving your past.
Mansel Robinson’s Scorched Ice
It¹s 1962 and the end of the world,
it seems, is at hand. An old soldier¹s family, already
fragmented by war, attempts to face catastrophe with something like
honour by going on the run. Somber and sweetly ironic, a
compelling meditation
about telling time by the atomic clock.
Winner Bios
Pam Bustin was born in Regina and was
raised in a host of small towns across the prairies. She currently
lives in Saskatoon with a lot of plants and a crazed
cat. She has a BA in Theatre from York University.
Saddles in the Rain was co-produced by
Realife Productions and Twenty Fifth Street Theatre in 1994 and an
excerpt of the play was published by the Playwrights Union of Canada in
their collection Taking the Stage: Selections from Plays by Canadian
Women. Her other work for the stage include Dancing with the Magpie
(presented as part of the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre’s Spring
Festival of New Plays in 2000); Calendar Girls: Series One - The
Seasons (a collaboration with Sharon Bakker and Louisa Fergusen
presented at the Saskatoon International Fringe Festival in 1999); and
her one woman show barefoot (which she performed at the Her-icane
Caroline Women's Festival in Saskatoon and at the Fringe in Winnipeg,
Saskatoon and Edmonton in 2002).
Her radio plays The White Car Project
and Coffee in Lloyd have aired on CBC Radio One and Two. Pam has
also written short fiction, journalistic pieces, and scripts for Web
sites and CDRoms. She is currently the President of the
Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre, a member of the Saskatchewan Writers
Guild and the Playwrights Union of Canada, and a member of the
Organizing Committee for the Her-icane Arts Festival.
Mansel Robinson’s plays include
Collateral Damage (Blizzard Publishing) as well as Colonial Tongues,
The Heart As It Lived and Downsizing Democracy (Playwrights Canada
Press) as well as Rock ‘n Rail: Ghost Trains and Spitting Slag
(Thistledown Press). Three plays will open in Saskatoon this season:
Street Wheat, produced by Dancing Sky Theatre, is currently on a tour
of the province, and will be published by Coteau Books; Ghost Trains
will be produced in French by La Troupe du Jour in February; Persephone
Theatre will be presenting The Heart As It Lived, also in February.
Ghost Trains: The Songs and Selected Text will come out on CD this
winter, produced and performed by Stewart MacDougall. Like most of his
plays, Scorched Ice was developed with the help of the Saskatchewan
Playwrights Centre, and received a staged public reading at the Spring
Festival of New Plays. Mansel is Saskatchewan Representative for the
Playwrights Guild of Canada and is a past-president of the Saskatchewan
Playwrights Centre. He lives in Saskatoon.
Judges’ Bios
Multiple-award winning playwright Daniel
David Moses is “a coroner of the theatre who slices open the human
heart to reveal the fear, hatred and love that have eaten away at
it. His dark play . . . can leave its audience shaking with
emotion” (Kate Taylor reviewing The Indian Medicine Shows in The Globe
and Mail). Moses, a Delaware from the Six Nations lands on the
Grand River, lives in Toronto, writing full time and working with both
Native and cross cultural arts organisation.
Actor/playwright Paula Wing has written
plays for both young and more seasoned audiences, but is most known for
her award-winning adaptation of Joy Kogawa’s Naomi’s Road, which was
Runner-Up for the 1992 Chalmers Canadian Children’s Plays Award.
Wing’s most recent published work is The King of Ireland’s Son.
Wing’s Canadian adaptation of Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an
Anarchist was presented at Regina’s Globe Theatre in March 2002.
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The
2001 John V. Hicks Manuscript Awards
In October 2001, the Saskatchewan
Writers Guild (SWG) announced the winners of the second annual John V.
Hicks Manuscript Awards, named in honour of an eminent Saskatchewan
poet who died in 1999. Established in April 2000 and supported by a
three-year financial commitment by Weyerhaeuser Canada, the 2001 awards
honoured three outstanding book-length fiction manuscripts.
The winners are Shelley A. Leedahl,
Saskatoon, for a short story collection titled Orchestra of the
Lost Steps; Dave Margoshes, Regina, for a short story collection
titled Pornography and Other Stories; and Joan Olson, Regina,
for a novel titled Prairie Initiation.
The three winning manuscripts, which
earned the authors awards of $1,000, were selected by judges Austin
Clark, Toronto, and Helen Humphreys, Kingston, from 32 entries
submitted by both established and lesser-known Saskatchewan writers.
The awards were officially presented by
a representative of Weyerhaeuser at a November 3 luncheon held during
the SWG's Fall Conference and AGM in Regina. As part of the luncheon
program, the three winners read from their work.
Shelley A. Leedahl is a Saskatoon writer
who has published six books of poetry, children's literature, and
fiction. The stories in Orchestra of the Lost Steps "are full
of the tensions and resolutions of lives often lived in the extreme,"
the judges commented. "[These are} stories that are immensely readable
and engaging."
Dave Margoshes is a Regina fiction
writer and poet currently serving as writer-in-residence at the
Saskatoon Public Library. His latest books are the novel I'm
Frankie Sterne (2000) and a poetry collection, Purity of Absence
(2001). Pornography and Other Stories was praised for its
"fresh and original voice.... The writing is innovative, full of
compelling images and insights."
Joan Olson is the president of Regina's
Wascana Writers Group, and has co-edited and contributed to their three
anthologies. "A compelling story," the judges said of Joan Olson's
novel, Prairie Initiation, "told within a sophisticated time
structure that enhances the narrative. The writing is assured and the
characters well developed."
Initially announced in April 2000 in
Prince Albert where Hicks was a long time resident, the John V. Hicks
Manuscript Awards recognize excellence in unpublished book-length
manuscripts by Saskatchewan writers. In 2000, the awards were given for
poetry. Drama and non-fiction awards will be made in 2002 and 2003.
Wayne Roznowsky, Public Affairs Manager
at Weyerhaeuser Saskatchewan, comments that "Weyerhaeuser is pleased to
partner with the Saskatchewan Writers Guild in a project that supports
the development of literary arts while also honouring John
Hicks."
John Hicks, who died in 1999 at the age
of 92, was born in 1907 in London, England, came to Canada as a child,
and grew up in various parts of Canada before settling in Prince
Albert. Widely published and respected, Hicks was awarded an honorary
D.Litt. from the University of Saskatchewan, received a Lifetime Award
for Excellence in the Arts from the Saskatchewan Arts Board, and was
given the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, the highest honour accorded by
the Province of Saskatchewan.
2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000
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The
2000 John V. Hicks Manuscript Awards
The first winners of the John V. Hicks
Manuscript Awards, which honoured three outstanding book-length poetry
manuscripts, were announced on October 30, 2000. The winners were Tonja
Gunvaldsen Klaassen, Saskatoon, for a collection titled "Ör";
Gerald Hill, Regina, for "Getting to Know You"; and Ken Howe, Regina,
for "Household Hints for the End of Time." The three were selected by
judges Mary Dalton, St. John's, NF, and Susan Goyette, Halifax, NS, out
of 36 submissions from emerging and established Saskatchewan poets.
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