May 21, 2022

Winnipeg
5° C, Overcast

Full Forecast

Contact Us Subscribe Manage Subscription Chat with us
Log in Create Free Account Help Chat with us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • My Account
    • Manage my Subscription
    • Change Password

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
    • Log in
    • Create Free Account
    • Help

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
  • Coronavirus Coverage
  • Replica E-Edition
    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • Community Review East
    • Community Review West
  • Above the Fold
  • Front page
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Book Club
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
    • Manitoba's Top Employers
  • Canada
  • Local
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • World
  • The Star
  • Reader BridgeNEW
  • WFP EventsNEW
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Archives
  • Free Press Community Review
    • All Free Press Community Review News
    • East Edition
    • West Edition
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Classifieds
  • Contests
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • LifestylesNEW
    • All Lifestyles
    • Business Hub
    • Community
    • Drink & Dine
    • Life
    • Wellness
    • Whiskers & Wings
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Homes
    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Newsletters
  • Obituaries
  • Puzzles
  • Photo and Book store
  • More

©2022 FP Newspaper Inc.

Close
  • Quick Links

    • Coronavirus Coverage
    • Federal Election
    • Above the Fold
    • Home
    • Local
    • Canada
    • World
    • Classifieds
    • Special Coverage
    • Newsletters
    • Obituaries
    • Photo and Book store
    • Archives
    • Contests
    • Publications
    • Sponsored Content
    • Privacy Policy

    Ways to support us

    • Pay it Forward program
    • Subscribe
    • Day Pass
    • Support Faith coverage
    • Support Arts coverage
  • Replica E-Edition

    • About the E-Edition
    • Winnipeg Free Press
    • Community Review East
    • Community Review West

    Business

    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
  • Arts & Life

    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Cannabis
    • Celebrities
    • Diversions
    • Puzzles
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Your Health
    • Life & Style
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Science & Technology
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Sports

    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Auto Racing
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • Golf
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Horse Racing
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Olympics
    • Soccer
  • Opinion

    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor

    Media

    • All Media
    • Photo Galleries
    • Videos

    Homes

    • Property Listings
    • Featured News
    • Renovation and design
    • New homes
    • Resale homes
  • Canstar Community News

    • All Free Press Community Review News
    • East Edition
    • West Edition
    • Sports
    • Events
    • Contact Us
    • E-Editions
  • Coupons

    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print Coupons
    • Ripley's Aquariums Coupons
    • The Bay Coupons
    • Staples Canada Coupons
    • Altitude Sports Coupons
    • Nike Coupons
    • Tuango Coupons
    • Ebay Canada Coupons
    • Sport Chek Coupons
    • Roots Coupons
  • About Us

    • About Us
    • Advertising
    • Contact Us
    • Carrier Positions & Retailer Requests
    • FP Newspapers Inc.
    • History
    • Internships
    • Job Opportunities
    • News Café
    • Privacy Policy
    • Retail Locations
    • Staff Biographies
    • Terms and Conditions
The Free Press
Articles Read
Your Balance +tax
Day Pass Till
Day Pass
    • Contact Us
    • Advertising Contact
    • Report an Error
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
    • Staff Biographies
    • Submit a News Tip
    • Subscribe to Newsletters

    • Finding your
      information

    • Log in
    • Create Account
    • Help
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate
    • My Account
    • Manage My Subscription
    • Change Password
    • Chat with us

    • Grid View
    • List View
    • Compact View
    • Text Size
    • Translate

    • Log Out
Log in Create Account Contact Us
Contact Us Manage Subscription
  • Sections
  • Local
  • Arts & Life
    • All Arts & Life
    • The Arts
    • Autos
    • Books
    • Diversions
    • Environment
    • Faith
    • Food & Drink
    • Health
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Travel
  • Business
    • All Business
    • Agriculture
    • Personal Finance
    • Manitoba's Top Employers
  • Sports
    • All Sports
    • Amateur
    • Blue Bombers
    • Curling
    • Football
    • Goldeyes
    • High School
    • Hockey
    • Winnipeg Jets
    • Manitoba Moose
    • WHL
    • MLB
    • NBA
    • Soccer
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Columnists
    • Editorials
    • Editorial Cartoons
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Send a Letter to the Editor
  • E-Edition
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
    • All Classifieds
    • Announcements
    • Automotive
    • Careers
    • Garage Sales
    • Merchandise
    • Pets
    • Real Estate
    • Rentals
    • Services
  • Lifestyles
    • Business Hub
    • Community
    • Drink & Dine
    • Life
    • Manitoba’s Top Employers
    • Wellness
    • Whiskers & Wings
    • Sponsored Articles
  • Coupons
    • All Coupons
    • Staples Copy & Print
    • Ripley's Aquariums
    • The Bay
    • Staples Canada
    • Altitude Sports
    • Nike
    • Tuango
    • Ebay Canada
    • Sport Chek
    • Roots
  • Obituaries
  • Subscribe$1.50 for 5 months
Home Local

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Mennonite writers dominate book gala

Provincial honours for Bergen, Dueck

By: Morley Walker
Posted: 1:00 AM CDT Monday, Apr. 18, 2011

  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Print
  • Email
  • Save to Read Later

The Mennonites flexed their literary muscle Sunday night at the Manitoba Book Awards, nabbing three of the top-dollar prizes.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/4/2011 (4051 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

 Winners (from left) Maureen Fergus, David Bergen, Sheila McClarty,  Dora Dueck, Greg Chomichuk, Michelle Elrick, Ariel Gordon, Jamis Paulson (accepting for Michelle Berry), and Lise Gaboury-Diallo.

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Winners (from left) Maureen Fergus, David Bergen, Sheila McClarty, Dora Dueck, Greg Chomichuk, Michelle Elrick, Ariel Gordon, Jamis Paulson (accepting for Michelle Berry), and Lise Gaboury-Diallo.

The Mennonites flexed their literary muscle Sunday night at the Manitoba Book Awards, nabbing three of the top-dollar prizes.

Veteran Winnipeg novelist David Bergen, the odds-on favourite, took home $8,500 by winning the $5,000 Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and the $3,500 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction for his novel The Matter With Morris, about a newspaper columnist mourning the death of his soldier son in Afghanistan.

Bergen urged the approximately 300 people who attended the low-key event at the Centre culturel franco-Manitobain to get in the book lineup rather than the beer lineup.

"Both start with B," he said. "We need readers as much as writers."

Winnipeg writer and editor Dora Dueck won the $5,000 McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award for her second novel, This Hidden Thing, about a Russian-Mennonite woman who immigrates here in the 1920s.

"If you are surprised, so am I," Dueck said. "I'm happy to be in the company of these wonderful writers."

The 23rd annual event saw more than 50 authors, designers, photographers and publishers competing for 12 prizes worth almost $30,000.

The speedily paced evening was MCed by University of Winnipeg English professor Catherine Hunter, a mystery novelist in her own right. The winners, most in attendance, gave short, polite acceptance speeches. The only comic relief was supplied, as usual, by presenter Kelly Hughes, the proprietor of the Aqua second-hand bookstore.

University of Manitoba native studies professor Emma Larocque won the $3,500 Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction for her academic study When the Other Is Me: Native Resistance Discourse, 1850-1990.

The $2,500 McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award (older category) went to Winnipeg's Maureen Fergus for her comic youth novel, Ortega, about a talking gorilla.

Michelle Elrick, a poet and fiction writer who moved here in 2007, won the $2,500 John Hirsch Award for most promising Manitoba writer.

"I came to Winnipeg from somewhere else with the hope of establishing myself as a writer," she said. "I feel like this is my new home."

The $2,000 Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for best first book by a Manitoba author was picked up by Oakbank-based Sheila McClarty's short story collection High Speed Crow.

The Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher, worth $1,000, went to the Turnstone Press novel I Still Don't Even Know You, penned by Ontario's Michelle Berry.

Winnipeg's Ariel Gordon, a Free Press poetry columnist and last year's John Hirsch awardee, won the $1,000 Aqua Books Lansdowne Poetry Prize for her debut collection, Hump. Coincidentally, Gordon works as a bookseller at Aqua, though the prize was juried independently.

The $3,500 Rue-Deschambault award for best French-language book went to the short-story collection Lointaines by Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface literature professor Lise Gaboury-Diallo.

The Free Press | Newsletter

Winnipeg Gardener

What you need to know now about gardening in Winnipeg. A monthly email from the Free Press with advice, ideas and tips to keep your outdoor and indoor plants growing.

Sign up for Winnipeg Gardener
Sign Up

The graphic novel The Imagination Manifesto, by Greg Chomichuk, with James Rewucki and John Toone, received the award for best illustrated book, while the cookbook A Dog's Breakfast by Jess Young and Relish Design Studios, won the Manuela Dias design of the year award.

The Matter With Morris, Bergen's sixth novel, released last September by HarperCollins of Toronto, was shortlisted for the 2010 Giller Prize, Canada's top fiction prize.

Local theatre stages have also seen a proponderance of Mennonite-penned plays, including works by Armin Wiebe, Patrick Friesen and Vern Thiessen.

Bergen's fellow Manitoba Mennonite star novelist Miriam Toews has just released her fifth novel, Irma Voth, which is a good bet to be in the running for several 2011 literary prizes.

However, the Steinbach-born Toews will not be eligible for next year's Manitoba Book Awards because she moved to Toronto in 2009 and Irma Voth is published by a Toronto-based house, Knopf, an imprint of Random House Canada.

morley.walker@freepress.mb.ca

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

  • Report Error
  • Submit a Tip
  • Refund
  • The Free Press is certified by

The Winnipeg Free Press invites you to share your opinion on this story in a letter to the editor. A selection of letters to the editor are published daily.

To submit a letter:
• fill out the form on this page, or
• email letters@freepress.mb.ca, or
• mail Letters to the Editor, 1355 Mountain Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R2X 3B6.

Letters must include the writer’s full name, address, and a daytime phone number. Letters are edited for length and clarity.

Advertisement

Advertise With Us

Top