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UBC graduate student wins inaugural Bridge Prize national short story writing competition

trevor.kenney — Wed, 23 Sep 2020 15:22:41 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of British Columbia (UBC) graduate student Sara de Waal is the inaugural winner of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Bridge Prize national short story writing competition, earning a $7,500 first-place award from a pool of 340 story submissions.

Winning author Sara de Waal

Her touching and poignant tale, Cecilia and Richard, won the favour of the jury panel and elicited praise for its construction and detail.

“The most carefully constructed story we received, beautiful deployment of metaphor, especially when we’re told that the father has no energy for metaphor. This is a language story, filled with effective detail, colours painting words and consequences," adds juror Aritha Van Herk, an Alberta-based author.

The Bridge Prize was established in 2019 by the U of L’s School of Liberal Education and Vancouver-based alumnus and donor Terry Whitehead (BA ’94). It is Canada’s only national short story competition open exclusively to post-secondary graduate and undergraduate students studying at Canadian universities and colleges. It’s $10,500 in prize money make it the richest student writing competition in Canada and among the largest for any short story competition in the country.

In addition to de Waal’s work, three finalists received $1,000 for their entries. Ahmad Danny Ramadan, also of UBC, was recognized for The Miraculous Return of Khaled from the Dead; Evan Neilsen, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, for Harriet; and James Cawkwell, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta, for his work Tadpole.

“Congratulations to Sara and the finalists for their creative and memorable stories,” says Whitehead. “A special thank you to our local jury and main jury for their energy, time and enthusiasm to support the next generation of Canadian literary talent. The support of The Walrus and Munro’s Books was so instrumental in generating awareness and excitement of the Bridge Prize. We look forward to a long partnership.”

De Waal is a writer and teacher from Abbotsford, B.C who will graduate from UBC’s Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing in November. Her first picture book, 48 Grasshopper Estates, is projected for release through Annick Press in April 2021. When she’s not busy writing, de Waal works as a primary music and art teacher where her students constantly inspire her to keep making art.

“When I began my Master of Fine Arts degree at UBC, I resigned from teaching music and returned to my high school job on a dairy farm, hoping all those early hours in the milking parlour would provide more time for daydreaming up stories — and they did,” she says. “The job also allowed me, on occasion, to help with the birthing of calves. Every time a calf took its first steps, I thought, I’ve never seen anything as beautiful or as unsteady. When I entered the Bridge Prize, I had just begun my last term as a creative writing student, and I felt similarly about most of my work: half in love with it, half afraid it would fall flat on its face. The contest was very much a first-steps experience for me, and I was both surprised and delighted to see Cecilia and Richard stand on its own outside the safety of my imagination. Though I’ve now resumed the tricky balance of writing while teaching, the Bridge Prize has given me the motivation and confidence to continue nudging my stories out into the world.”

Dr. Shelly Wismath, dean of the School of Liberal Education, says the Bridge Prize competition exceeded expectations.

“We are so pleased to congratulate Sara de Waal as the inaugural winner of the Bridge Prize. Her story stood out among stiff competition from across the country, as deeply moving and beautifully written,” says Wismath. “We are also grateful for the tremendous support the Bridge Prize has received from our sponsor and from authors and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ across Canada, in support of a new literary competition.”

Submissions for the 2022 Bridge Prize competition will be accepted beginning January 21, 2021. The main jury for the 2022 competition will be announced in November.

About the Bridge Prize

• Established in 2019 and first awarded in 2020, a new competition will run every second year.

• Total prize money for the Bridge Prize is $10,500, with $7,500 to the winner and $1,000 each to three finalists.

• 340 stories from students attending 61 post-secondary institutions in nine provinces across Canada were entered for 2020.

• An initial group of 18 local jurors, comprised of campus and community-based ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and cultural leaders, read all 340 stories. Each story was read by a minimum of three jurors, after which the field was narrowed to the top 70. Every local juror then read each of the 70 stories before 10 were sent on to the main jury.

• The five-person main jury was comprised of authors Thomas King (head juror), Charles Demers and Aritha Van Herk; Shelley Ambrose, former executive director of The Walrus magazine; and Leslie Hurtig, artistic director of the Vancouver Writers Fest.

Interest in The Bridge Prize explodes with 340 entries

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 15:41:59 +0000

Launched as one of the richest prizes for student short story fiction writing in Canada, participation in the School of Liberal Education’s inaugural Bridge Prize contest has far exceeded all expectations.

The Bridge Prize was launched in March 2019 as a student short story fiction writing competition to be awarded every second year. Shelly Wismath is the dean of the School of Liberal Education.

When the submission deadline closed at midnight on January 20, 2020, a total of 340 manuscripts were received, representing 61 post-secondary institutions from nine provinces – a truly national competition.

“We are ecstatic with the enthusiastic response from students across the country. The total number of submissions is well beyond our expectations for the first year of the Bridge Prize,” says Vancouver-based U of L alumnus Terry Whitehead (BA ’94), founder and lead donor of the competition. “At Christmas, we were at 59 submissions and quietly optimistic about reaching 100 by the deadline. To get over 300 – it is almost overwhelming.”

The Bridge Prize was launched in March 2019 as a student short story fiction writing competition to be awarded every second year. Open to any student registered in a Canadian post-secondary institution at the time of the submission deadline, its focus is to celebrate excellence in the literary arts, to nurture aspiring student writers and to support the transition between student writing and professional literary art.

“It was exciting to watch the submissions pour in as we approached the deadline, and to see the diversity of colleges and universities represented across the country,” says Dr. Shelly Wismath, dean of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s School of Liberal Education. “Having the Bridge Prize housed in the School of Liberal Education speaks to the U of L’s commitment to a broad integrated education based on engagement in the communities around us, from local to national to global. Our local jury is eager to start reading, to winnow down to a long list to send on to the main jury, and we look forward to the announcement in September 2020 of our winners.”

Each story now enters an evaluation process led by a local jury comprised of campus and community-based ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ and cultural leaders who will read the stories and select a top 10 to be forwarded to the main jury by May 30. Thomas King, author and former U of L faculty member, heads the main jury. Other jurors include author and comedian, Charlie Demers, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary faculty member, Aritha van Herk, The Walrus publisher, Shelley Ambrose, and Leslie Hurtig, artistic director of Vancouver Writers Fest. They will assess the stories and arrive at a winner and three additional finalists in August. The winners will be announced in September.

The Walrus and Munro’s Books in Victoria, BC also sponsor The Bridge Prize. The winner of the competition will receive $7,500, while the three finalists will all earn $1,000. All four winners also receive a $200 gift card courtesy of Munro’s Books.

Whitehead notes that Canadian writers are renowned globally for the short fiction genre and in helping to create The Bridge Prize, he sought to create just that, a bridge for writers to explore and build towards writing full novels.

“The number of submissions confirms that the short story genre is very much alive and thriving on Canadian campuses. This bodes extremely well for the future of Canadian literature,” he says.

For more on The Bridge Prize, visit the website at go.uleth.ca/thebridgeprize.

New national short story contest one of the richest short story fiction writing awards in Canada

trevor.kenney — Tue, 19 Mar 2019 22:03:16 +0000

Today, the School of Liberal Education at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge is excited to launch one of Canada’s richest short story fiction writing awards – The Bridge Prize.

A nationwide contest, The Bridge Prize is a short story fiction writing competition to be awarded every second year, and is open to any student registered in a Canadian post-secondary institution at the time of the submission deadline. Its focus is to celebrate excellence in the literary arts, to nurture aspiring student writers and to support the transition between student writing and professional literary art.

“The Bridge Prize is intended to inspire and motivate the next generation of Canadian writers,” says Terry Whitehead (BA ’94), a Vancouver-based alumnus of the U of L who initiated The Bridge Prize concept and has pledged to fund the competition for 10 years. “I am grateful to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and the School of Liberal Education for leading this exciting new national initiative celebrating creative writing at the post-secondary level.”

The deadline for the first intake of submissions for the prize is January 20, 2020, with $7,500 awarded to the winner of the contest and an additional $1,000 to each of three finalists. Each winning author also receives a $200 gift card courtesy of Munro’s Books of Victoria.

An exemplary panel of jurors has been recruited to review the submitted works, including author, Thomas King; Executive Director and Publisher of The Walrus, Shelley Ambrose; author, Charles Demers; Vancouver Writers Fest Artistic Director, Leslie Hurtig; and Alberta-based author, Aritha van Herk.

“I want to express my thanks to our founding jury – truly a mix of Canada’s most established and emerging literary talent and cultural leaders – for their commitment to supporting Canadian talent at the post-secondary level,” says Whitehead.

The U of L is already home to three annual student writing competitions that collectively award over $6,000 each year in prize money. They include the Play Right Prize, which celebrates excellence in one-act playwriting; the Striking Prose Prize, which recognizes excellence in short fiction; and the HistoriCity Essay Award, which recognizes excellence in historical research related to the city of Lethbridge.

Whitehead, who also funds these competitions, says The Bridge Prize is a natural progression for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s commitment to nurturing excellence in student writing. It also celebrates the values of liberal education, on which the U of L was founded and continues to thrive.

“Liberal education is our foundational teaching and learning philosophy. A liberal education values curiosity, multidisciplinary studies and the ability to connect and integrate knowledge, critical thinking and citizenship. These are all values that are essential to creative writing,” says Dean of the School of Liberal Education, Dr. Shelly Wismath. “The ability to explore, contextualize and contribute to the world around us is enhanced by a foundation of liberal education. Exploring and explaining the world through fiction is what writers do.”

The award’s name is representative of its intent to support the transition, or bridge, between being a student writer and pursuing a career as a professional writer. It also pays tribute to the Lethbridge Viaduct, commonly known as the High Level Bridge, the world’s longest and highest bridge of its type and one of the iconic viewpoints from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

For more on The Bridge Prize, visit the website at go.uleth.ca/thebridgeprize.

Following is a look at the jurors:

Thomas King (Head Juror)

Thomas King is an award-winning writer whose work consists of fiction, non-fiction, short stories, radio plays, children’s books, and a mystery series. He has won numerous awards, including the 2003 Trillium Book Award for The Truth About Stories, the 2014 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction for The Back of the Turtle, and the RBC Taylor Prize and the B.C National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America. Thomas taught at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge and is a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Professor Emeritus at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Guelph.

Shelley Ambrose

Shelley Ambrose is the executive director and publisher of The Walrus, a national publication dedicated to sparking conversation on matters vital to Canadians. She was previously a producer for CBC Radio. Ambrose has been awarded the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal for Volunteerism, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for Arts and Letters.

Charles Demers

Charles Demers is the author of five books of fiction and non-fiction, including the bestselling satirical crime novel Property Values, which has been optioned for development as a feature film. He is a comedian and his stand-up record Fatherland was nominated for the Juno Award for Best Comedy Album of the Year. He is a fan-favourite on CBC’s smash radio hit The Debaters.

Leslie Hurtig

Leslie is the artistic director of the Vancouver Writers Fest, an international, year-round festival that aims to connect people to outstanding books, ideas and dialogue. She has worked for some of Canada’s best bookstores and acted as a sales representative and publicist for some of North America’s great publishers.

Aritha van Herk

Aritha van Herk is the author of five novels, Judith, The Tent Peg, No Fixed Address, Places Far From Ellesmere, and Restlessness. Her non-fiction includes Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta, and The Age of Audacity (a history of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary). Her most recent work, Stampede and the Westness of West, melds poetry and place-writing. She is a Member of the Order of Canada, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and has been honoured as one of the 25 most influential artists in Alberta.

UNews - Aritha van Herk

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