News > LitFest presents Alberta Literary Award winners

LitFest presents Alberta Literary Award winners

8/16/2010 12:00:00 AM

LitFest presents three winners from the 2010 Alberta Literary Awards at the 2010 festival.

LitFest continues to support the work of the Writers Guild of Alberta does in bringing local, national and international attention to Alberta authors through the Alberta Literary Awards.

As with last year, LitFest honours the winner of the William F. Egglestone Award for Nonfiction. Will Ferguson, winner for his hilarious and thoughtful memoir Beyond Belfast: A 560-mile Walk Across Northern Ireland on Sore Feet, will present his impressions of Ulster at readings on October 16th.

We are also pleased to present Mia Atienza, recipient of the Amber Bowerman Memorial Travel Writing Award for One Flamenco Night, and Joan Dixon, recipient of the James H. Gray Award for short nonfiction for her stirring work The Perils of War and Mother-Son Relationships.

The author/co-author of eight books ofnonfiction and one novel, Will Ferguson is one of Canada’s best-selling writers. Hisfirst book, Why I Hate Canadians was a bestseller and established him asan iconoclastic writer; its follow-up, How toBe a Canadian, co-authored with his brother Ian, was a Globe andMail bestseller for over eighty weeks. Fergusonlives in Calgarywith his wife, Terumi, and their sons, Alex and Alister.

A closet writer, Mia Atienza surprised many by winning the2010 Amber Bowerman Memorial Travel Writing Award with her first foray into writing, OneFlamenco Night. Afterall, the Edmontonnative studied math at the University of Alberta. Atienza also loves sports andcompetes in marathon speed skating and trail running. After such a great start,she looks forward to her writingfuture.

Joan Dixon has spent much of the last decaderesearching, authoring and editing creative nonfiction books on Canadian history. Tackling a personal subject for the first timethis past year, she was shortlisted for two Alberta Literary Awards andhonoured with the inaugural James Gray Short Nonfiction Award. The piece, The Perils of War and Mother-SonRelationships, was excerpted in Chatelaine and will appear in anupcoming anthology Dixonis co-editing with Barb Howard which will explore the militarylife from the various, and varied, perspectives of the home front.

The Writers Guild of Alberta is a provincial arts service organization that represents both professional and emerging writers in Alberta. It was formed in 1980 to provide a meeting ground and common voice for all the writers in the province.

Travel Afghanistan New Work Ulster Ireland Reading War