New look to the literary landscape
REVITALIZED VINE AWARDS CELEBRATE CANADIAN JEWISH LITERATURE
THE WRITERS HAVE MADE ME THINK, MADE ME LAUGH AND CRY, MOVED ME
The Koffler Centre of the Arts has announced that the inaugural Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature will recognize winning authors on Sept. 29 in a ceremony at the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville.
The new awards represent a unique offering on the Canadian literary landscape, although they are steeped in the tradition of their predecessor, the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards.
The original awards were launched in 2004 and annually recognized the best literary works by JewishCanadian writers, as well as literature that explores Jewish culture and history. They were financially supported by benefactors Lillian and Norman Glowinsky, who named the awards in honour of Lillian’s parents, Helen and Stan Vine, who were passionate about Jewish arts and culture. The awards were facilitated by the Koffler Centre of the Arts, which promotes contemporary arts and culture.
After some creative deliberation, the awards entered a brief hiatus in 2014. The new program for 2016 has been reimagined as the Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature and has raised the stakes considerably for entrants. While the previous program capped awards at $ 1,000, the new program offers awards of $ 10,000 each for prizewinners in fiction, non-fiction, history and young adult/children’s literature, with an additional $ 10,000 prize offered every third year for poetry.
Expanding on its original mandate, the awards now span both digital and print media, making them unique among Canadian literary competitions. This year’s awards will consider works from both 2014 and 2015.
The awards program continues to reflect the Vine family’s love of Jewish culture and the Glowinskys’ desire to honour their commitment. They will support the awards through the Lillian and Norman Glowinsky Family Foundation for the next five years with an annual donation of $100,000.
However, the most important part of the program remains the promotion of the literary works and the authors themselves, says Lillian Glowinsky.
“I was impressed with the incredible work on myriad Jewish- related subjects that was coming out of the Canadian literary community, both from Jewish and non- Jewish writers,” she says. “I wanted to be sure their work received the visibility and recognition it deserved — and with this attention hopefully ensure that it would be noticed and enjoyed by a wide readership throughout Canada. I hope that there will be an ongoing interest in encouraging Canadian writers to write about topics that fall under the umbrella of the Vine Awards and thereby honour my parents’ love of t he arts, community, and their adopted country — Canada.”
Formerly aligned with the annual Toronto Jewish Book Fair, the new Vine Awards are forging an independent identity with a more intimate awards ceremony. The event will strive to focus media attention on the authors and their works, helping to drive visibility and raise public awareness.
For its part, the Koffler Centre will integrate the slate of prizewinners into its programming as winning authors are featured in the year’s literary events. The Vine Reading Series, for example, will highlight authors at events held in partnership with the Holy Blossom Centre for Contemporary Jewish Literature and the Toronto Public Library.
Just as the re- launched Vine Awards span the traditional and the new, Glowi nsky’s appreciation of Jewish- Canadian authors reflects a similar scope.
“I love everything Mordecai Richler has written,” she says. “What an amazing author. And of the newer generation, I enjoy the work of David Bezmozgis, a past Vine Book Award winner. He writes with such maturity, humour and insight. There are so many others, but these come to mind immediately.”
However, she hesitates to claim that any author has influenced her — the word is simply too limited to apply to her literary experience.
“I don’t think writers have influenced me as such,” she says. “They have made me think, made me laugh and cry, moved me, and brought me countless hours of enjoyment — Jewish and nonJewish alike.”