P.E.I. authors honoured
Writers gather at The Mack to award excellence
Author Louise Burley wishes she were able to share her win from this weekend’s Island Literary Awards.
Burley was one of several Island authors honoured during the 30th Cox and Palmer Island Literary Awards held by the P.E.I. Writers Guild Saturday at The Mack in Charlottetown.
Burley won the Susan Buchanan Creative Non-Fiction Award for her piece, “Open Door.”
“It was very exciting. I have to say, I’m just not a person who ever wins anything so it was sort of shocking,” said Burley, who had previously won second prize for a non-fiction piece and third prize for a fictional piece several years ago.
Burley said she also felt many of the other nominated pieces were excellent.
“My friend Margot (Maddison-MacFadyen) was also nominated in creative nonfiction and I know her piece was just gorgeous. When she gave me a hug I said ‘I’m sharing this with you’ because I read her piece and it was beautiful,” said Burley, adding that being nominated was in itself an honour. “Because when you get to that shortlist, the pieces are all pretty good.”
The evening also saw Suzanne Mills win the L.M. Montgomery P.E.I. Writing for Children Award, while Michael Page won the Milton Acorn Poetry Award and Joel Gillespie won the Maritime Electric Short Story Award.
The evening also saw Mary Hooper and Robert Acorn receive the Joseph Sherman Award, while librarian Roseanne Gauthier was honoured with the Champion of Reading Award.
The event was the final celebration in a week-long festival aimed at engaging Islanders to read more.
Reading Town P.E.I., a project of the National Reading Campaign, was founded in 2015 to inspire curiosity about the stories and storytellers that shape the P.E.I. community while also recognizing the accomplishments of artists, educators and literacy champions.
Becka Viau, director of Reading Town P.E.I., said this year’s festival saw thousands of Islanders of all ages engaged during more than 45 events throughout the week.
“There were a lot of authors from off-Island that came in but also a lot of local authors and illustrators being engaged as well as the general public,” said Viau.
Viau said it was nice to put a spotlight on P.E.I.’s writers since it is often a “solitary art.”
“It’s not often showcased the same way visual art is in a gallery and reading can be a very individual consumption of the art,” said Viau.
“It’s nights like these and festivals like Reading Town that really show the community the impact that reading and the literary arts have on our lives.”
More information on the initiative can be found at www. readingtownpei.com