WCA Appoints New President, Executive VP

By News

February 25, 2014

Bruce Westwood is delighted to announce several changes taking place at Westwood Creative Artists.

Jackie Kaiser has been appointed to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer of Westwood Creative Artists, effective immediately. Jackie became a literary agent at Westwood Creative Artists in October 2000 following a decade at Penguin Books where she was Executive Editor. Her instincts, passion, work ethic, and above all her devotion to her writers have led to a distinguished career in Canadian book publishing that spans 30 years. She has spoken about editing, agenting and publishing at the Adelaide Festival of Writers and various universities in Canada. The writers she has nurtured have topped bestseller lists, been published in dozens of countries around the world, and won numerous awards including The Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Prize, the Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Non-fiction, the RBC Taylor Prize, the Edna Staebler Award, and Marian Engel Award, and the BC National Prize for Nonfiction.

Hilary McMahon has been appointed to Executive Vice President of Westwood Creative Artists. Hilary joined Westwood Creative Artists in 1995 after earning a double major in journalism and English and working in public relations and the magazine industry. She spent a number of years as Bruce Westwood’s assistant before taking on her own clients, and was recognized early in her career in Quill & Quire’s “Ones to Watch” feature. She now represents a list of acclaimed, bestselling and prize-winning writers across diverse genres. She is particularly proud of her longstanding relationships with writers who came to her with unsolicited manuscripts, and have now enjoyed significant success in Canada, the US, and abroad. Her sensitivity, tenacity, intelligence and optimism are appreciated by clients, publishers, and colleagues alike. In addition to her responsibilities as an agent, Hilary is in charge of human resources at the agency and enjoys mentoring junior colleagues.

Jackie Kaiser and Hilary McMahon are both shareholders in Westwood Creative Artists.

Westwood Creative Artists was founded in 1995 by Bruce Westwood. With a client roster that boasts more than 400 authors, it is Canada’s largest literary agency, representing award-winning literary fiction, quality commercial fiction including mysteries and thrillers, critically acclaimed non-fiction in the areas of memoir, history, biography, science, journalism and current events, a select range of practical non-fiction, and choice titles for children and young adults.

Bruce Westwood will continue to act as Managing Director and CEO of the agency. Michael A. Levine will continue in his role as Chairman of Westwood Creative Artists.

Thomas King Wins BC’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

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Congratulations to Thomas King, who has won British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America.

The jury, in its citation, called it a “wry, iconoclastic and important book that challenges us to think differently about both the past and the future.”

For more information, please visit:

http://www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction/winner/2014

Margaret MacMillan, Graeme Smith and Paul Wells Shortlisted for Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

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The five finalists for the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing have been announced, and we are thrilled that WCA authors Margaret MacMillan, Paul Wells and Graeme Smith made the list. The winner will be announced in Ottawa on April 2, 2014, at the Politics and the Pen Gala.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.writerstrust.com/News/News-%281%29/Press-Release-Archive/Press-Releases/Shaughnessy-Cohen-Shortlist-Eng-%28Feb-4-2014%29.aspx

Margaret MacMillan for The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914
Published by Allen Lane Canada

Graeme Smith for The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan,
Published by Knopf Canada

Paul Wells for The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006
Published by Random House Canada

Westwood Authors Fill RBC Taylor Prize Shortlist

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I’m pleased to announce that the following WCA titles have made the shortlist for the RBC Taylor Prize:

Charlotte Gray’s THE MASSEY MURDER
Thomas King’s THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN
Graeme Smith’s THE DOGS ARE EATING THEM NOW

The RBC Taylor Prize is awarded annually to the author whose book best combines an excellent command of the English language, an elegance of style, quality of thought, and subtlety of perception. The Prize consists of $25,000 for the winning author and $2,000 for each of the runners up.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/


Finalists Named for Tenth Annual BC National Non-Fiction Award

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The 2014 shortlist for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction was announced today, and WCA is thrilled to have three authors on the list. The award carries a prize of $40,000.

This year’s finalists include:

Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

Margaret MacMillan’s The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

Graeme Smith’s The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan

For more information, please visit:

http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/


Longlist Announced for BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

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WCA is thrilled to announce that five WCA authors have been longlsted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Congratulations to all!

Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace, Ronald J. Deibert, McClelland & Stewart

The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master, and the Trial that Shocked a Country, Charlotte Gray, HarperCollins Canada

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, Thomas King, Doubleday Canada

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, Margaret MacMillan, Penguin Canada

The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan, Graeme Smith, Knopf Canada

http://www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction/longlist.php


Matt James wins GG Award

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Congratulations to Matt James, winner of the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award (Children’s literature – illustration) for Northwest Passage (Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press).

The jury citiation follows:

Matt James’s unique illustrations set our imaginations soaring as they steer us through Stan Rogers’ famous ballad, Northwest Passage. The ink and acrylic paintings explode with raw effects and vivid colour, sometimes settling to small ice-blue vignettes. Each page is descriptive of the search that obsessed much of the world for hundreds of years.

For more information, please visit:

http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca/en/about-apropos/archives/2013/northwest%20passage

WCA Authors on Amazon.ca’s Best of 2013 List

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I’m pleased to report that Amazon.ca’s Top 100 Editors’ Picks of 2013 include:

Margaret MacMillan’s THE WAR THAT ENDED PEACE
Don Gillmor’s MOUNT PLEASANT
Shyam Selvadurai’s THE HUNGRY GHOSTS
Ann Johnston’s DRINK
Charlotte Gray’s THE MASSEY MURDER

Not to mention appearances in Best Books of the Year: History by:

Stephen J. Harper’s THE GREATEST GAME
Andrew Steinmetz’s THIS GREAT ESCAPE

Congratulations to all!

Wagamese, Stephenson and MacDonald Longlisted for IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

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The longlist for the 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award was just announced, and WCA is thrilled to have three authors represented on the list. To read about the nominated novels, please click on the author’s title below:

D.R MacDonald: Anna From Away (HarperCollins)

Ben Stephenson, A Matter of Life and Death or Something (D&M)

Richard Wagamese, Indian Horse (D&M)

Books on the longlist were nominated by libraries in 39 countries. The shortlist will be made public on April 9th, and the €100,000 winner revealed on June 12th.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/

By News

Klondike, a six hour television mini-series based on Charlotte Gray’s 2010 bestseller Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike, will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel in January, 2014. A $25 million production, it stars Sam Shepard, Abbie Cornish, Tim Roth and Richard Madden.

To get a sneak preview of the series, please visit: http://klondike-history.discovery.com/

Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike was published in Canada by HarperCollins and in the US by Counterpoint.