No storybook ending for Manitoba Book Awards

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This article was published 23/08/2024 (444 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After more than three decades, the Manitoba Book Awards are no more.

The four organizations that administer the book awards — Plume Winnipeg (formerly the Winnipeg International Writers Festival), Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, Winnipeg Public Library and Manitoba Writers’ Guild — are making the “difficult but necessary decision” to dissolve both the awards program and their coalition, as recommended by a feasibility study released Thursday.

“I think that was the expected outcome, because we’ve all been working so very hard at keeping it alive with very little remaining resources,” said Matt Joudrey, president of Association of Manitoba Book Publishers and publisher with At Bay Press.

“If I remove my hat as president, as a publisher, it’s disappointing because our authors have nowhere in the province to submit for their provincial awards.

“As a writer myself, it’s disappointing because when you have your own book out, you want all the chances you can possibly get.”

Founded in 1988, the Manitoba Book Awards recognized excellence in Manitoba writing, publishing, storytelling, book design and illustration. Past winners include David A. Robertson, Katherena Vermette, Jonathan Dyck, Miriam Toews, David Bergen and Carol Shields.

The awards were put on hiatus in November 2023. With funding from the Winnipeg Foundation, the coalition commissioned Kayla Calder, an Ottawa-based consultant with experience in the not-for-profit and writing and publishing sectors, to conduct the feasibility study, which took place March through June 2024.

Calder’s 19-page report, which is available to read on the Manitoba Book Awards website, recognizes the value of the awards to both Manitoba authors and readers.

“However, between a dearth of reliable resources and competing priorities, management of the program in its current form has become untenable,” the report states.

The awards program has become increasingly resource-strapped over the past several years and has faced myriad structural and financial challenges, including a global pandemic and a 2021 restructure in provincial arts funding that, per the report, “changed the situation dramatically.”

Joudrey commended the report’s thoroughness.

“It explains that there was really no option here for the coalition. This was the direction that things had to go,” he says.

But he also sees it as a tool.

“Everyone interviewed during the process was unanimous: everybody felt that the awards were and are still important, and that they want them, and that it’s a significant cultural event that happens here in the province,” he says.

“And so it leaves an open door option for new, passionate parties to come along and potentially create something amazing from this, with the original foundation the awards set forth.”

Two open meetings will be held at the Carol Shields Auditorium at the Millennium Library on Aug. 28 and Aug. 29, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. to discuss the report. Those interested in attending either of these meetings are asked to pre-register through Eventbrite.

jen.zoratti@winnipegfreepress.com