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Tourism, Culture and Recreation
March 30, 2010

The 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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2010 03 30                                                      1:55 p.m.
 


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