"TRACKS" WINS WRITERS' UNION OF CANADA'S TWELFTH ANNUAL WRITING FOR CHILDREN COMPETITION
The Writers' Union of Canada is pleased to announce that M. Alicia Fraser has won the twelfth annual Writing for Children Competition, for the best story under 1,500 words, with her piece "Tracks." The author will receive a $1,500 cash prize. In addition, the Union will submit the winning story and the other eleven finalists’ stories to three Canadian publishers of children’s literature for their consideration.
The Union initiated the Writing for Children competition to discover, encourage, and promote new writers of children’s literature. This year, seventeen Union members donated their time and expertise to read over 929 outstanding submissions and distill them into a longlist of ninety-seven stories. These stories went on to a second round of eighteen readers who selected the finalists to pass on to the 2008 Jury: Damien Fière, Jacqueline Guest, and Tim Wynne-Jones.
WINNER: "Tracks” by M. Alicia Fraser
The Jury noted that this is “a well-crafted story… with the goal of publication in mind.” They also remarked that in telling a “brilliant tale of one girl’s courage, [the] style is very maturely handled, [keeping] the reader’s attention from the very beginning to the end.” and that “in the newly minted teen, Elizabeth, and her awful visiting mother, M. Alicia Fraser has, with great economy, created two quite remarkable characters.”
M. Alicia Fraser lives near Ottawa. She still enjoys the Eastern Ontario cottage where her childhood summer reading evolved from second-hand comics and musty children’s classics to the new book selections under consideration by her librarian aunt. Fraser’s short story “The Volunteer” was a prizewinner in a Canadian Authors Association National Capital Writing Contest and was published by the Ottawa Citizen. She is a past recipient of a John Spencer Hill Award for her short story “Andy Boy.”
FINALISTS:
If You Listen, Shanti Ang
A Taxi for the Town, Clo Carey
Being Ben, Kathleen Cherry
The Three Little Sister Pigs, Sheryl Fitzell
Inner Cave, Amy Hogue
The Mouse that Loved String, Stephen Markan
The Test, Jeffrey Marshall
Snowgirl and the Chinook, Ginger Mullen
From the Ground Up, Julia Smith
Lizzie-Sue and the Dragon, Sya VanGeest
Granny Goodness Goes to Cowboy Camp, Teresa J. Wouters
READERS FOR THE COMPETITION:
Don Atkinson, Ann Birch, Pauline Carey, Sean Cassidy, Norma Charles, Veronika Martenova Charles, Lisa Cinar, Joan Craven, Marion Crook, Jane Drake, P.M. Foss, Lian Goodall, Marjory Gordon, Carolyn Gossage, Linda Granfield, Nan Gregory, Sylvia Gunnery, Ann C. Jamieson, Sharon Jennings, Perparim Kapllani, Ken Klonsky, Loris Lesynski, Anna Jean Mallinson, Dona Paul Massel, Anne Logan McNamara, Michael Mortensen, Elise Moser, Cynthia Nugent, Sheila Pennington, Rene Schmidt, Gisela Sherman, Debbie Spring, Halli Villegas, Lorraine O'Donnell Williams, Cathleen With.
FINAL JURY:
Damien Fière, Jacqueline Guest, and Tim Wynne-Jones.
The Writers' Union of Canada is our country's national organization representing professional authors of books. Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well being of all writers. For more information, please visit www.writersunion.ca.
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For additional information:
Nancy MacLeod, Competitions Coordinator
The Writers’ Union of Canada
416-703-8982 Ext. 226
competitions@writersunion.ca
