ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A text from his mother-in-law is how Toronto-based writer Adam Segal found out he was the winner of this year’s Toronto Star Short Story Contest. “She’s an early-riser and has a subscription to the paper, so she was the first in the family to get the news,” said a delighted Segal, whose piece, Burning, earned him a $5,000 cheque and a creative writing scholarship at Humber College. Segal, whose work has appeared in numbers Canadian publications, said the story is fictional but one character, Foster, was drawn from an actual Toronto story of a person who died in the 2003 blackout. Judges praised the writer for his “beautiful, evocative prose” and his “eye for detail and solid dialogue.” Segal had previously participated in the annual contest, and said it’s “validating” to finally win it all. “It goes to show to every writer out there, keep working hard and never take no for an answer,” he said. On the same day he was announced as a winner for the Star’s 42nd annual short story contest, Segal was also announced as a nominee for the National Magazine Award, for his fictional story “The Dahlia” recently published by subTerrain.