The Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore, Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation, today congratulated Joel Thomas Hynes for winning the 2017 BMO Winterset Award at a ceremony held at Government House in St. John’s.
The BMO Winterset Award, administered by ArtsNL, recognizes excellence in all genres of writing. Books in any genre published in 2017 were eligible for the award. Thirty-one works by Newfoundland and Labrador authors were submitted by publishers from across the country.
Joel Thomas Hynes received a $12,500 award for We’ll All Be Burnt In Our Beds Some Night, published by HarperCollins Publishers. Bridget Canning for The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes, and Wayne Johnston for First Snow, Last Light, each received $3,000 for being shortlisted.
The BMO Winterset Award honours the memory of Sandra Fraser Gwyn, St. John’s-born social historian, prize-winning author, and passionate promoter of Newfoundland and Labrador arts. Her husband, journalist and author Richard Gwyn, established the award in 2000. It is named after the historic house on Winter Avenue in St. John’s where Sandra grew up. The award is sponsored by BMO Financial Group and the Sandra Fraser Gwyn Foundation
Quotes
“The strength of the literary sector in Newfoundland and Labrador is world class, and is an integral part of our cultural community. Prestigious honours such as the BMO Winterset Award give authors like Bridget Canning, Joel Thomas Hynes and Wayne Johnston the recognition they rightly deserve, and I congratulate these authors for their fine work and their contribution to the rich literary scene flourishing across the province.”
Honourable Christopher Mitchelmore
Minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation
“ArtsNL is proud of its management role for the BMO Winterset Award and we are pleased to enjoy a close relationship with its founder, Mr. Richard Gwyn, and look forward to the continuation of our partnership with the award’s sponsor, the BMO Financial Group. We also thank members of the jury, who had a challenging decision before them, and we appreciate their time and effort. We are delighted that publishers across the country forwarded more than 30 titles to ArtsNL for the 2017 BMO Winterset Award jury to consider – books in all kinds of genres including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, scripts, children’s books and more. The BMO Winterset Award celebrates excellence in Newfoundland and Labrador writing, and ArtsNL extends its congratulations to this year’s recipient and the two finalists.”
Stan Hill
Chair, ArtsNL
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Media contacts
Eric Humber
Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation
709-729-4819, 725-9655
erichumber@gov.nl.ca
Joshua Jamieson
ArtsNL
709-726-2212 ext. 203
jjamieson@nlac.ca