We’re delighted to share that four out of the ten authors on the 18th RBC Taylor Prize longlist are represented by Westwood Creative Artists! We would like to wish a warm congratulations to these deserving authors.

From the Jury:

Just Let Me Look at You by Bill Gaston
“This is a quiet, meditative and tender-hearted exploration of childhood injury and its legacy across generations.”

All Things Consoled by Elizabeth Hay 
“Tender, witty and brutally honest, the book tears open the cloak of shared secrecy to bare the dynamics of a family — the fears, sibling rivalries, joys, disappointments and grievances that have lain unacknowledged through the decades.”

Seeking The Fabled City by Allan Levine
“A tour de force both as a definitive history and a fascinating read. Levine tells a compelling story that is, in its own way, a most significant and valued history of Canada. ”

Mamaskatch by Darrel J. McLeod
“A torturously-beautiful memoir of growing up in a world of violence and family trauma. McLeod’s writing is lyrical and offers a powerful examination of contemporary issues, from sexual self-identification to the scars of residential school to the contemporary search for reconciliation.

Congratulations to author Anne Renaud, winner of the 2018 QWF Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature, for Mr. Crum’s Potato Predicament, illustrated by Felicita Sala.

Every year, the Quebec Writers’ Federation shines the spotlight on the best English-language writers to emerge from Quebec.

Westwood Creative Artists, a busy literary agency located in the Annex, has an immediate job opening.  Providing assistance to two agents, the ideal candidate will be a highly organized self-starter, team player and problem solver with the passion and patience for detail.  Responsibilities include negotiating contracts, corresponding with authors and publishers, managing submission and contacts databases, preparing information for rights guides and reading and evaluating manuscripts. Must be able to work with a high level of productivity and independence in a vibrant open-concept office.  A university or college degree as well as a publishing certificate would be an asset, as would previous work or internship experience in the industry. Proficiency with MS Word and Excel are assumed; clear and efficient communication skills are essential. Interest in a broad range of fiction and non-fiction would be valuable.

Interested candidates should submit a resume and cover letter by email to Hilary McMahon at hilary@wcaltd.com. We look forward to considering a diverse range of applicants, however only those candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.  We would appreciate receiving applications by November 26, 2018, but will extend the posting to make sure we can find an individual who can grow within the agency over the long term.

Christopher Dewdney’s 18 Miles: The Epic Drama of Our Atmosphere and Its Weather received a lovely starred review in Publishers Weekly. PW says of Dewdney’s most recent book, “With wit and a humbling sense of wonder, this is a book that can be shared and appreciated by a wide audience who now religiously check their phones for daily forecasts.”

Congratulations to Jordan Scott winner of the 2018 Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize! His works include Silt, Blert, and Night & Ox. The Prize is given to a mid-career poet in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian poetry.

“And I could live my life this way / in strokes of / worktree / glowtops / orange trails / leftover hair / a body’s / sonic fictions. Jordan Scott savours and vies not solely with the materiality of language, but language’s subjective materiality. For Scott, each context and uttering body manifests an original materiality: the precision of nature, anatomy, the names of friends, the contours of British Columbia or Poland, the daily ritualized cycles of parenthood and the cosmos. His associations, insinuations, discoveries, tensions, and mysterious propulsive force—these manifestations of his consciousness—are wondrous. I could live / drawing curtains / looking out / of sorewater / transcendentals / down to / morning / again to / bind me in / joyride dress / tie me to / lightveins.” —2018 Jury Citation (Wayde Compton, Sylvia Legris, and Moez Surani)

We are so thrilled for Elizabeth Hay, winner of the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. The Jury (Michael Harris, Donna Bailey Nurse, and Joel Yanofsky) said of her memoir All Things Consoled:

“Elizabeth Hay’s loving, exacting memoir, All Things Consoled, details the decline of her elderly parents with unflinching tenderness. The path she and her family travel is crooked and long, filled with hospital beds and doctors’ visits, foggy minds, and shuffling confusion. But Hay’s prose elevates this ordinary rite of passage — the death of one’s parents — to something rare and poetic. All Things Consoled becomes, itself, a consolation for anyone despairing at the loose ends that parents leave behind. Page-after-page this is a masterclass in observation — a lesson in how meaning can emerge from grief.”

The shortlist for the inaugural Staunch Book Prize has been announced and we’re thrilled to see Anna Porter’s The Appraisal made the cut!

Staunch says:

“In this fast-paced and demanding literary novel, the reader must work to keep track of the twists and turns and the many players, none of whom are entirely truthful – including the fearless protagonist, Helena Marsh. A gripping thriller set against the rich post-war history of middle-Europe where fortunes were reversed through war, revolution and shifting political regimes and where the past itself cannot be trusted. Born in Budapest, Canadian writer Anna Porter generously shares her knowledge of time and place and impresses with detailed insights into the world of art history and appropriation, big money deals and the quest for restitution.”

We are absolutely over-the-moon thrilled for Matt James, one of ten artists worldwide to make the list of 2018 New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books! The Funeral, James’ first book as both author and illustrator, was praised by the New York Times for it’s “colorful acrylics and playful collage [that] lend a youthful exuberance to a normally dreary subject, giving poignant insight into a child’s understanding of the adult world.”