Dayne Ogilvie Prize

Summary

The Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada to an emerging Canadian writer who is part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer community. Originally presented as a general career achievement award for emerging writers that considered their overall body of work, since 2022 it has been presented to honor debut books.

Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers
Awarded forExceptional merit in work relating to LGBTQ literature in Canada
CountryCanada
Presented byWriters' Trust of Canada
First awarded2007
WebsiteDayne Ogilvie Prize

It is one of two literary awards in Canada serving the LGBTQ community, alongside the Blue Metropolis Violet Prize for established writers.[1]

The award was originally established by artist Robin Pacific as the Dayne Ogilvie Grant in memory of Dayne Ogilvie, a book editor, writer, arts manager and former managing editor of Xtra![2] who died in October 2006.[3] The award was renamed from a grant to a prize in 2012.

Dayne Ogilvie Prize winners Farzana Doctor, Amber Dawn, Debra Anderson

Established in 2007, the CA$5,000 prize was not originally presented for a specific work,[4] although writers must have published at least one book of fiction or poetry to be eligible.[4] The winner was selected by an independent jury of three members, and presented annually; the presentation was normally in June, although the 2020 announcement was postponed to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[5] In its early years the award was presented in conjunction with Pride Toronto,[4] although in later years it expanded to different venues and cities.[6]

Beginning in the prize's second year, the award introduced a preliminary shortlist of two or three writers. The writer or writers not selected as the final winner of the prize are presented with an Honour of Distinction, worth CA$500 if one writer is named or CA$250 each if two writers are named. Authors who are awarded the Honour of Distinction remain eligible for the primary award in future years,[4] although to date no writer who has been awarded an Honour of Distinction has subsequently been named the primary winner. In 2019, Casey Plett became the first Honour of Distinction recipient in the award's history to be renominated.[6]

The Writers' Trust has announced that beginning with the 2022 award, the prize will transition from a general "career achievement" award into a prize to honour specific debut books.[7] The award's scheduling has also been moved so that it no longer takes place in June as part of Pride Month, but in November at the same gala presentation as the other Writers' Trust awards.[8]

Winners and nominees edit

Year Winner Nominees Jury Refs
2007 Michael V. Smith none [2][4]
2008 Zoe Whittall Brian Francis, John Miller Elizabeth Ruth, Maureen Hynes, Dan Bazuin [9]
2009 Debra Anderson Greg Kearney Derek McCormack, Shani Mootoo, Aren X. Tulchinsky [4][10]
2010 Nancy Jo Cullen Lisa Foad, George K. Ilsley Brian Francis, Don Hannah, Suzette Mayr [3][11]
2011 Farzana Doctor Dani Couture, Matthew J. Trafford Jen Sookfong Lee, Jeffrey Round, Zoe Whittall [12]
2012 Amber Dawn Mariko Tamaki Kamal Al-Solaylee, Ivan E. Coyote, Michael V. Smith [13]
2013 C. E. Gatchalian Anand Mahadevan, Barry Webster Amber Dawn, Anne Fleming, Vivek Shraya [14]
2014 Tamai Kobayashi Rae Spoon, Proma Tagore Anna Camilleri, Connie Fife, Bill Whitehead [15]
2015 Alex Leslie Casey Plett, Vivek Shraya Nancy Jo Cullen, Brett Josef Grubisic, Anand Mahadevan [16]
2016 Leah Horlick Gwen Benaway, Jia Qing Wilson-Yang Anjula Gogia, Billeh Nickerson, Casey Plett [17]
2017 Kai Cheng Thom Ali Blythe, Eva Crocker Jane Eaton Hamilton, Elio Iannacci, Trish Salah [18]
2018 Ben Ladouceur Trish Salah, Joshua Whitehead Ali Blythe, Greg Kearney, Shannon Webb-Campbell [19]
2019 Lindsay Nixon Joelle Barron, Casey Plett Amber Dawn, Kai Cheng Thom [6]
2020 Arielle Twist Robyn Maynard, Smokii Sumac Trevor Corkum, Lindsay Nixon, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha [5]
2021 Jillian Christmas Kama La Mackerel, jaye simpson Daniel Allen Cox, Eva Crocker, Danny Ramadan [20]
2022 Francesca Ekwuyasi, Butter Honey Pig Bread Bilal Baig, Acha Bacha
Matthew James Weigel, Whitemud Walking
Billy-Ray Belcourt, Samra Habib, Zoey Leigh Peterson [7][21]
2023 Anuja Varghese, Chrysalis Gabriel Cholette, Scenes from the Underground
Amanda Cordner and David Di Giovanni, Body So Fluorescent
S. Bear Bergman, Nicholas Dawson, Sharanpal Ruprai [22][23]

References edit

  1. ^ Peter Knegt, "Canadian LGBTQ literature is having a moment, and this Montreal festival is showcasing that". CBC Arts, April 18, 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Vancouver's Smith wins new prize for gay writers". CBC News, June 14, 2007.
  3. ^ a b "Nancy Jo Cullen wins Dayne Ogilvie Grant" Archived 2013-01-29 at archive.today. National Post, May 19, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Dayne Ogilvie Grant at The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  5. ^ a b Ryan Porter, "Finalists announced for the 2020 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers". Quill & Quire, August 25, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c "Joelle Barron, Lindsay Nixon, Casey Plett named finalists for $5K LGBTQ emerging writers prize". CBC Books, May 7, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Cassandra Drudi, "Writers’ Trust announces finalists for 2022 Dayne Ogilvie Prize". Quill & Quire, August 24, 2022.
  8. ^ "Bilal Baig, francesca ekwuyasi, Matthew James Weigel finalists for $10K prize for emerging LGBTQ writers". CBC Books, August 24, 2022.
  9. ^ "Zoe Whittall wins Dayne Ogilvie Grant". Quill & Quire, June 17, 2008.
  10. ^ "Code write" Archived 2013-06-16 at archive.today. Xtra!, June 18, 2009.
  11. ^ "Writer Nancy Jo Cullen is a rising talent" Archived 2012-07-21 at the Wayback Machine. Xtra!, September 9, 2010.
  12. ^ "Farzana Doctor to receive Dayne Ogilvie Grant" Archived 2012-08-05 at the Wayback Machine. Quill & Quire, June 1, 2011.
  13. ^ "Vancouver's Amber Dawn wins LGBT literary award". CBC News, June 26, 2012.
  14. ^ "C. E. Gatchalian wins Dayne Ogilvie Prize" Archived June 29, 2013, at archive.today. National Post, June 27, 2013.
  15. ^ "Writers’ Trust Presents LGBT Literary Award to Author and Screenwriter, Tamai Kobayashi" Archived 2015-07-10 at the Wayback Machine. Writers' Trust of Canada, June 23, 2014.
  16. ^ "Alex Leslie wins 2015 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers". Quill & Quire, June 8, 2015.
  17. ^ "Leah Horlick wins 2016 Writers' Trust Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers". CBC Books, June 7, 2016.
  18. ^ "Toronto’s Kai Cheng Thom wins Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ Emerging Writers". National Post, June 5, 2017.
  19. ^ "Ben Ladouceur, Trish Salah, and Joshua Whitehead named Dayne Ogilvie Prize finalists". Quill & Quire, May 17, 2018.
  20. ^ Ryan Porter, "Emerging queer writers celebrated as finalists announced for Dayne Ogilvie Prize". Quill & Quire, May 26, 2021.
  21. ^ Deborah Dundas, "Writers’ Trust 2022 book award winners collect $270,000 in prizes". Toronto Star, November 2, 2022.
  22. ^ Cassandra Drudi, "Memoir, short story collection, and play named 2023 Dayne Ogilvie Prize finalists". Quill & Quire, September 13, 2023.
  23. ^ Nicole Thompson, "Kai Thomas wins Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for debut novel". Toronto Star, November 21, 2023.

External links edit

  • Dayne Ogilvie Prize