Tourism, Culture and Recreation
March 30, 2010The
following statement was given today in the House of Assembly by the
Honourable
Terry French,
Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation:
Minister Congratulates Literary Sector
for Recent Successes
I rise today to congratulate author Jessica Grant, who
this past Thursday was named the winner of the 2009 Winterset Award for
her first novel entitled Come, Thou
Tortoise.
Ms. Grant's Winterset win is one of many honours and
awards bestowed upon this province's extraordinary literary community
within the past year, and is testament to the amazing work being
produced in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Also nominated were Michael Crummey, whose
novel Galore was short-listed for the 2009 Governor's
Literary Award and the winner of the 2010 Commonwealth
Writers' Prize for Best Book in Canada and the Caribbean, and Lisa
Moore, author of February, which was also
short-listed in that same category. I note as well that poet
Randall Maggs, who won the 2008 Winterset Award,
has also been awarded the 2009 E.J. Pratt Poetry Prize and the 2010
Kobzar Literary Award for his book
Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems.
In addition, six titles locally published by Boulder
Publications, Breakwater Books, Flanker Press, and Creative Book
Publishing have been nominated for the 2010 Atlantic Book Awards, which
promotes excellence in Atlantic Canadian writing and book publishing.
Mr. Crummy's Galore and Greg Malone's You Better Watch Out,
have also been nominated for those awards.
These are just a few of the recent accolades earned by
our literary community. As you know, the Provincial Government remains
committed to the growth of our literary sector with funding provided
through the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, the
Publishers Assistance Program and the Cultural Economic
Development Program. That funding provides support to a variety of
literary events, activities and professional development opportunities
which help our emerging and established writers to continue to live,
work, and be inspired in Newfoundland and Labrador.
I invite my colleagues to join me in congratulating
Jessica Grant and all of the province's remarkable writers and
publishers for their successes this year.
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