Emerging authors land $10K prize to kickstart career

Winnipeg Free Press

07-06-2025

The Writers' Trust of Canada has announced the winners in three categories of the RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, which aims to help developing authors land a book deal and further their work.
Vancouver author Jess Goldman won the short fiction award for the story Tombstone of a Tsaddik, beating out Toronto's Alexis Lachaîne and Victoria's Hana Mason.
In the creative non-fiction category, the top spot went to Toronto's Phillip Dwight Morgan for White Trucks and Mergansers; Morgan beat out fellow Torontonians Graham Slaughter and Huyen Trân.
And in the poetry category, Vancouver author Dora Prieto took top honours for Loose Threads, besting Vancouver's Cicely Grace and Saskatchewan's Nicole Mae.
Each of the winners receives $10,000, are invited to networking events and have their work published in both print and digital formats. For more about the authors and to read their submissions, see wfp.to/iwl.
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The Forks Market launches a new literary series on Friday with a discussion about Winnipeg, affordability and more.
The first instalment of the Lectures and Lagers series kicks off at 6 p.m. with Michel Durand-Wood, author of You'll Pay for This! How We Can Afford a Great City for Everyone, Forever, published by Great Plains Press.
The event, which takes place in the second-floor event space at The Forks Market, will see Durand-Wood read from the book and then take part in a Q&A with Johanna Hurme of 5468796 Architecture.
Registration is required, with a suggested donation of $20; Durand-Wood's book can also be purchased through the registration page, which is at wfp.to/iwT.
The lagers of said event (as well as ales, wine and non-alcoholic beverages) will be available for purchase from an on-site mobile bar.
Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com
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Spring book launches at McNally Robinson Booksellers' Grant Park location are in the final stretch before the quieter summer months set in.
On Wednesday at 7 p.m., Winnipeg educator and filmmaker Kevin Nikkel launches Founding Folks: An Oral History of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, published by University of Manitoba Press, which includes interviews with folk fest staff, volunteers and performers.
The event will be hosted by David Knipe and will feature the musical stylings of Big Dave McLean.
On Friday, Nikkel's documentary about the Winnipeg Folk Festival, When We Became Folk Fest, opens at the Dave Barber Cinematheque (100 Arthur St.); the opening-night screening will be followed by a Q&A featuring Nikkel and Winnipeg music historian John Einarson.
Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com
Back at McNally Robinson, on Thursday at 7 p.m. York University English Prof. Robert Zacharias launches In Search of a Mennonite Imagination: Key Texts in Mennonite Literary Criticism, published by CMU Press.
The essay and review collection, edited by Zacharias, compiles over 50 pieces of writing from 44 authors spanning more than 150 years; Zacharias also provides an introduction to the book as well as to many of the pieces of writing in the book.
Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com
Then on Friday at 7 p.m., Manitoba sheep farmer and wool mill owner Anna Hunter launches her book The True Cost of Wool: A Vision for Revitalizing the Canadian Industry, published by Nine Ten Publications.
Hunter examines how the Canadian wool industry has changed over the decades, and how Canada could rebuild a local wool industry to the benefit of farmers, consumers and the environment.
Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com
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Ben SigurdsonLiterary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press's literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press's editing team before being posted online or published in print. It's part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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