Here’s what the jury had to say: “Readers who doubt the modern world is grotesque and hilarious, heart‐stopping and wild, may discover they are delighted with Zsuzsi Gartner’s wonderful collection of stories, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives. From the specifications of covetable stereo equipment to the worries of the former terrorist, from the language of IKEA to gardening as warfare, this book shows the short story form at its savage best, each story capturing, with brilliant economy and grace, not only entire worlds but whole mindsets as they explode into eloquence. Gartner is one of the supreme noticers in contemporary fiction, and with this book she has produced a rare work of wisdom and laughter.”

The Scotiabank Giller Prize is Canada’s most distinguished literary prize, awarding $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English.

For more information on the prize, please visit:  www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca. For rights inquiries, please contact David Whiteside, david.whiteside@ca.penguingroup.com.



Westwood Creative Artists congratulates Rohinton Mistry on being selected by an international jury representing nine countries, as the 2012 laureate of the $50,000 Neustadt International Prize for Literature, sponsored by the University of Oklahoma, the Neustadt family and the international magazine World Literature Today, The choice was made during deliberations Sept. 29 on the OU Norman campus.

The Neustadt Prize, awarded every two years, is the only international literary award for which poets, playwrights and novelists are given equal consideration. It is widely considered to be the most prestigious international prize after the Nobel Prize in Literature and, in fact, is often referred to as the “American Nobel” because of its record of 28 laureates, candidates or jurors who in the past 41 years have been awarded Nobel Prizes following their involvement with the Neustadt Prize. The 22nd Neustadt laureate to win the prize, Mistry will accept the award at OU in fall 2012.

WCA is proud to announce that on Friday, September 16, 2011, His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, named Dr. James Orbinski an Officer of the Order of Canada. The honour was bestowed upon Dr. Orbinski for his contributions as a physician who has worked to improve healthcare access and delivery in developing countries, and as an advocate for those who have been silenced by war, genocide and mass starvation. The Order of Canada was created in 1967, during Canada’s centennial year, to recognize a lifetime of outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to the nation.

On Tuesday, the finalists for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction were announced at a ceremony held in Toronto. Included on the shortlist are Charles Foran and Richard Gwynn; Charles Foran for Mordecai: The Life & Times (Knopf Canada) and Richard Gwynn for National Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891 (Random House Canada).

The winner of the inaugural Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction will be announced October 25.

WCA is happy to announce that Charlotte Gray and Roy MacGregor have been shortlisted for Ottawa Book Awards; Gray for Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike (Harper Collins) and MacGregor for Northern Light: The Enduring Mystery of Tom Thomson and the Woman Who Loved Him (Random House Canada).

For more information please visit: http://www.ottawa.ca/rec_culture/arts/awards/book/finalists_en.html

WCA is thrilled to announce that Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish has been named one of 5 nominees for this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.  Former recipients include Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan.

The 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize jury has announced its longlist of books in the running for this year’s award and Westwood Creative Artists is thrilled that two WCA authors have been included: Zsuzsi Gartner, for her short story collection Better Living Through Plastic Explosives (Hamish Hamilton Canada), and Pauline Holdstock, for her novel Into The Heart Of The Country (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd). The shortlisted finalists will be revealed at a news conference in Toronto on Tuesday, October 4th. The winner will be announced at a gala ceremony in Toronto on November 8, 2011, broadcast on CBC Television.

For more information please visit:

www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/news/details/?id=81

www.paulineholdstock.com/

www.zsuzsigartner.com/

Westwood Creative Artists is thrilled to announce that Rabindranath Maharaj’s The Amazing Absorbing Boy (Knopf Canada) has been shortlisted for the Toronto Book Awards. The winner will be announced on October 13^th. The Amazing Absorbing Boy also recently won the Trillium Book Award.

Westwood Creative Artists is happy to announce that Sonia Day’s Incredible Edibles by has been shortlisted for the Canadian Cookbook Awards.

The votes are in for the Writers’ Trust of Canada and Samara’s Best Canadian Political Books of the Last 25 Years project and Westwood Creative Artists is thrilled to announce that Ezra Levant’s Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights, was named the winner. Thousands of Canadian readers voted online from a list of 12 finalist books.