Greatness invited
March 31st, 2015
Mother Tongue Publishing’s 3rd Great BC Novel Contest is now open for entries. Judges will be B.C. novelists Bill Gaston (right), Pearl Luke and Kathryn Para.
The contest is open to all writers living in British Columbia, and the deadline for unpublished manuscript submissions is September 1, 2015.
The contest originated in 2008, and its purpose is to inspire and encourage the growth and appetite for excellence in literary fiction written by BC writers.
Complete guidelines are at http://www.mothertonguepublishing.com/great-bc-novel-contest.html
The 1st Great BC Novel Contest winner was Everything Was Good-bye, a debut novel by Gurjinder Basran of Delta, BC. Everything Was Good-bye went on to win the 2011 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. It was also Reader’s Choice for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a 2012 Top 5 CBC Canada Reads choice (BC/Yukon). After Mother Tongue Publishing sold the Canadian rights to Penguin Canada, Everything Was Good-bye was re-issued in Canada and released in the US as a Penguin Pintail Book. Jack Hodgins was the final judge for the 1st contest.
Grayling, a debut novella by Gillian Wigmore of Prince George, a finalist for the 1st Great BC Novel Contest, was published in 2014 by Mother Tongue.
The 2nd Great BC Novel Contest winner was Lucky, a debut novel by Kathryn Para of Gibsons, BC. Lucky was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2014. Caroline Adderson was the final judge for the 2nd contest.
Judges:
Wilson Fiction Prize nominee and contest judge, Kathryn Para
PEARL LUKE’s novel Burning Ground won the 2001 Commonwealth Prize for Best First Novel (Canada/Caribbean region) and was short-listed for the Chapters/Robertson Davies First Novel Prize, Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and Canadian Booksellers’ Libris Award. She was one of 10 international writers-in-residence for the City of Taipei in 2000. Madame Zee was long-listed for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Luke works as a freelance editor and private writing mentor and lives on Salt Spring Island with her partner, poet and novelist Robert Hilles. Visit http://www.be-a-better-writer.com
BILL GASTON’S latest novel, The World, won the 2013 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. His fiction has been nominated for the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Award, and has won the ReLit Award, the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and the CBC Canadian Literary Award. His most recent short-story collection, Juliet Was a Surprise, was nominated for the 2014 Governor General’s Award. Gaston was the inaugural recipient of the Timothy Findley Award, conferred by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. He lives in Victoria and teaches at the University of Victoria.
KATHRYN PARA is an award-winning, multi-genre writer with an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her debut novel, Lucky, won Mother Tongue Publishing’s 2nd Great BC Novel Contest. Lucky was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2014. Para’s fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in Grain, Room of One’s Own, Geist, Sunstream and Vancouver Review. Her stage play, Honey, debuted in 2004. She has also written, directed and produced short films. She lives in Gibsons, BC. Visit http://kpara.wordpress.com/
Leave a Reply