Holly Hogan wins 2023 Winterset Award

Holly Hogan is the winner of the 2023 BMO Winterset Award for her book “Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist.”

The award, which celebrates excellence in Newfoundland and Labrador writing, was presented Thursday, March 14, at a ceremony at Government House in St. John’s.

Hogan is a writer and wildlife biologist with a focus on seabirds. During her more than 30 years as a scientist, she has spent about 1,000 days at sea conducting avian and marine mammal surveys and providing educational programming with expedition teams.

The two other finalists were Michael Crummey for “The Adversary” (Knopf Canada) and William Ping for “Hollow Bamboo” (Harpercollins).

The BMO Winterset Award, managed by Artsnl, is a partnership made possible through the support of the BMO Financial Group, the Sandra Fraser Gwyn Foundation, and Carol Bishop Gwyn, widow of the project’s founder, writer Richard Gwyn. The prize awarded to the annual winner is $12,500, while the finalists each receive $3,000. It is one of Atlantic Canada’s most lucrative literary prizes.

“Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist” (Knopf Canada) is one of 49 works by Newfoundland and Labrador authors (either native-born or resident) that were submitted by publishers from across the country.

Books in any genre, published in 2023, were eligible. The jury consisted of writers Mark Callanan, Shelly Kawaja, and Karen Levine.

The BMO Winterset Award honours the memory of Sandra Fraser Gwyn, St. John’s born social historian and prize-winning author, who promoted a national awareness of the province’s artists. Her husband, journalist and author Richard Gwyn, established the award in 2000. It is named after the historic house on Winter Avenue in St. John’s where Sandra grew up.