Member news is a new, regular website feature designed to tell the world about our members' outstanding and wide-ranging skills and talents.

January 2012

Gilles Vilasco (QAC branch) edited the manuscript for a book that will be published by Presses de l'Université du Québec under the title Le Québec APRÈS Bouchard-Taylor – L'identité religieuse de l'immigration. The book, which will be in stores February 15, was published under the direction of Louis Rousseau, Professor of Religious Studies at UQAM. Rousseau also wrote the introduction and conclusion. The book contains eight chapters written by teachers and researchers Mathieu Boisvert, Frederic Castel, Anne Letourneau, Jean-Rene Milot, Louis Rousseau and Raymonde Venditti.

December 2011

Lynn Coady (Prairie Provinces branch) is the 2011 writer in residence at MacEwan University. Her fourth novel, The Antagonist (House of Anansi Press), earned her a place on the 2011 long list of nominees for the Scotiabank Giller Prize alongside literary heavyweights such as Marina Endicott and Michael Ondaatje.

On October 25, 2011, Grammar Gals, Karen Virag and Virginia Durksen (Prairie Provinces branch), answered grammar questions on CBC Radio's Alberta at Noon program (one of their regular appearances on CBC over the past several years). The Gals and a crowd of 30 or so editors also appeared at the Great Big Grammarfest later that night, at Mount Royal University, Calgary. CBC host Donna McElligott moderated both the show and the evening event.

September 2011

Kudos to BC branch member Heidi Greco whose manuscript, Shrinking Violets, was co-winner of Quattro Books' annual novella competition. Since the book was released at the end of April 2011, Heidi has presented it at Montreal's Blue Met Festival and at launch events in Toronto and London, ON; Saskatoon, SK; Red Deer, AB; and White Rock, BC.

Congratulations also go to Toronto branch member Susan Hughes. Her book, Case Closed: Nine Mysteries Unlocked by Modern Science, is a finalist for the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-fiction through the Canadian Children's Book Centre. In addition, her newest non-fiction book for children, Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World, has been published this fall by Owlkids Books.

In June 2011, for the second year in a row, Prairie Provinces branch member Karen Virag received a Golden Leaf Award of Merit for Overall Publication from the Canadian Education Press Association (CEPA), for Just in Time, a newsletter that she writes and edits for the Diversity, Equity and Human Rights Committee of the Alberta Teachers' Association. CEPA represents teacher association presses across Canada. The theme of this award-winning issue was transgender.

Also in June 2011, Karen Virag received an honourable mention in the short article category by the Professional Writers' Association of Canada for "The Naked Truth About Raw," her article about the raw food movement. The article was published in the winter 2010 issue of The Tomato, an Edmonton culinary magazine.

June 2011

Congratulations go to Prairie Provinces branch member Astrid Blodgett. One of her short stories, "Ice Break," has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of The Antigonish Review.

QAC branch member Daphne Davey was recently elected national president of the Canadian Therapeutic Riding Association. Among its services, the association offers an instructor certification program, including workshops and exams at the assistant instructor, intermediate instructor, instructor and coach levels. Daphne has been an assistant instructor for 20 years. She has been actively coaching physically challenged, developmentally delayed and autistic children and adults for over 30 years.

Toronto branch member Carolyn Wilker is celebrating the release of her new book, Once Upon a Sandbox. Published by Reflections on the Past, the book is a memoir about life on a family farm in Ontario in the 50s and 60s.

May 2011

Toronto branch member Peggy Ireland was a judge in the first annual "Money Doesn't Grow on Trees!" international financial literacy contest sponsored by Phat Math, Inc. Peggy is the author of Easy Tax Tips for Canadians.

QAC branch member Carolyne Roy has just completed proofreading two books aimed at college students. Environnement économique and Calcul différentiel, both published by Éditions CEC, will teach students about the workings of economics and differential mathematics.

April 2011

Kudos to BC branch member Frank Chow, who copy edited The Aquaculture Controversy in Canada: Activism, Policy, and Contested Science by sociologists Nathan Young and Ralph Matthews. The book was recently awarded the 2011 K.D. Srivastava Prize for Excellence in Scholarly Publishing. The prize is given each year by the Publications Board of UBC Press to the author(s) of a work of outstanding scholarly quality published by the Press in the previous year.

A book indexed by Prairie Provinces branch member Judy Dunlop has been shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Alberta's Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction: Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium by Myrna Kostash (University of Alberta Press). The awards will be announced on June 11 at a gala event in Calgary.

Adrienne Montgomerie, a member of the Kingston twig and an EAC speaker, has been invited to speak at the Thousand Islands Writers' Festival in Brockville, Ontario, on May 7 on "Finding a Good Editor—and Why You Need One." Fellow Kingston twig member Sheelagh Frame will talk about editing in academia. The event is being organized by another Kingston twig member, Chris Stesky.

Congratulations to NCR branch member Suzanne Nussey, who was one of three winners of Event magazine's 2010 Non-Fiction Contest. Her essay, "Sleep, Mother and Child," is featured in the magazine's most recent issue.

Prairie Provinces branch member Marguerite Watson has been shortlisted for the Writers Guild of Alberta's 2011 Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Prize for her essay "Closer to the Bone." Marguerite was also shortlisted for the WGA's James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction in 2010 for an essay entitled "What Grows in the Soil.

March 2011

Jeff Bursey, QAC branch member, is pleased to announce the release of his first book, Verbatim: A Novel. Published by Enfield & Wizenty, the book is a satirical work set in a fictional Canadian legislature in the 1990s.

Nancy Mackenzie, Prairie Provinces branch member, recently celebrated the release of her third book of poetry titled Communion. The book, published by Ekstasis Editions, explores spiritual and philosophical themes and is available at Edmonton's Greenwoods' Bookshoppe.

Kudos to BC branch member Melva McLean, who has co-written a screenplay with Bonnie Gibson that has been optioned by Britain's Serendipity Films/Create Lab. Called Dragonfly, the screenplay is a "family road trip" film.

Congratulations to Toronto branch member Lily Quan, who was recently awarded a Toronto Arts Council Grant to complete her novel-in-progress, Dreams of the White City. The novel is historical fiction set in 1890s Chicago.

Philip Sherwood, BC Branch member, was the editor of two recently acclaimed books. In the Arms of My Beloved, written by Sandra Crawford, won the 2010 Word Guild Award for Best Independently Published Non-fiction. Susanne Remembers: A Mennonite Childhood in Revolutionary Russia, by Susanne Willms Thielman, won the 2010 Abbotsford Arts Council ARTY Award for Literary Arts.

January 2011

Kudos to BC branch member Nancy Flight for editing two acclaimed new books: Smiling Bears by Else Poulsen and A Hunter's Confession by David Carpenter. Smiling Bears, an enlightening and moving portrait of bears in all their complexity, was shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. A Hunter's Confession, which tells the story of hunting, recently won the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award. Both books are published by Greystone Books.

December 2010

Quebec/Atlantic Canada branch member Wendy Helfenbaum, and Montreal author Marijke Vroomen-Durning, recently launched a new international essay anthology, Fits, Starts & Matters of the Heart. The book is a collection of 28 stories demonstrating "the enduring power of relationships to drive, haunt, empower and enrich us." It is available online from Amazon.ca.

Prairie Provinces branch member Roberta Laurie recently edited the non-fiction anthology Christmas Chaos, published by Prairie Dog Publishing. Christmas Chaos features tales of Christmases gone awry from across Canada. After two weeks on McNally Robinson Winnipeg's bestseller list this month, it has now reached the bestseller list at McNally Robinson Saskatoon.

BC branch member Frances Peck recently published an e-book titled Peck's English Pointers. The book takes "a thorough yet entertaining look at some of the most common errors, weaknesses and uncertainties that plague writers of English." It is available online from the Translation Bureau of Canada.

Kudos to National Capital Region branch member Marion Soublière, whose book, Getting Work with the Federal Government: A guide to figuring out the procurement puzzle (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2010), is now available through Chapters.ca and Amazon.ca. The book shows independent professionals of all stripes how to get contract work with the $20 billion per year federal market.

November 2010

Toronto branch member Dawn Hunter has won the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction for Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road, a book she wrote with Priscilla Galloway. Published by Annick Press, the book has been called a "wonderful resource for research and reports" for readers aged 10 and up. The Norma Fleck Award is administered annually by the Canadian Children's Book Centre.

BC branch member Melva McLean recently won The Atlantis Award at the 2010 Moondance International Film Festival, held in Boulder, Colorado, for a screenplay she co-wrote with Bonnie Gibson. The screenplay, titled Dragonfly, is a family film about a young woman who breaks her grandmother, "Nan," out of an old folks' home and takes her on a nostalgic trip to see the opera house where she once sang.

Peter Midgley, Prairie Provinces branch member, has published a collection of poetry, perhaps i should / miskien moet ek. The poems, written in English and Afrikaans, deal with the experiences of immigration, living between borders and languages, and personal loss. Stan Chung writes in his introduction to the collection that "Midgley's slender poems do not trumpet forth in predictable ways; instead, they move sideways across two continents, over decades of time, and through a rhythmic mélange of language." The book can be ordered from the publishers at www.kalwriters.com/kalpress_books.html or directly from Peter at pmidgley@shaw.ca.

Carolyne Roy, Quebec/Atlantic Canada branch member, has just finished proofreading Entre bonheur et liberté – Commentaire sur l'éthique de Bentham, Mill et Kant. Written by Claude Veillette, this comprehensive overview designed for college students is published by Éditions CEC of Montreal.

October 2010

In June 2010, Prairie Provinces branch member Karen Virag received a Golden Leaf Award of Merit for Overall Publication from the Canadian Education Press Association (CEPA), for Just in Time, a newsletter that she writes and edits for the Diversity, Equity and Human Rights Committee of the Alberta Teachers' Association. CEPA represents teacher association presses across Canada.

Since last September, QAC branch member Anna Olivier has been giving the Réécriture et révision II course at Université Laval in Quebec City. She will also teach Réécriture et révision (the first part of the same course) during the winter term.

QAC branch member MaryAnn Hayatian recently celebrated the 2010 release of her children's book, Cookie, a cat's tale, published by Lulu Press. Cookie is a cat who likes to play outside, be with his furry friends and hang out with his toy, Mr. Skunk.

August 2010

Dawn Hunter's (Toronto branch) book, Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road, is a finalist for the Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children's Non-Fiction through the Canadian Children's Book Centre. It was also a 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist.

Sharon Crawford (Toronto branch) has two stories, "Cemetery Circle" and "My Brother's Keeper" in the Gathered Streams anthology published by Hidden Brook Press. An electronic version of Sharon's novella, Fire Underneath the Ice, which she co-authored with Irene Gargantini under the pseudonym R.S. Natanevin, has also been published by Rogue Phoenix Press. The print copy is due out soon with a book launch in September in Waterloo, Ontario.

Paul Cipywynk (BC branch) has completed the copy editing and proofreading of Desperate Times, a trilogy of Ukrainian short fiction translated into English. The three volumes—Brother against Brother, Between the Trenches and Conflict and Chaos—were translated by Paul's aunt, Roma Franko, and edited by his late mother, Sonia Morris. The trilogy will be published by their award-winning Ukrainian literature publishing company, Language Lanterns Publications Inc., later this month.

June 2010

The Editors' Association of Canada was well represented at the Alberta Book Awards gala held in Edmonton on May 14, 2010. A dozen or so Prairie Provinces branch members cheered as their colleague Joan Dixon received the James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction for her piece entitled "The Perils of War and Mother-Son Relationships." Also shortlisted for this award was Marguerite Watson for her piece entitled "What Grows in the Soil." Joan Dixon was also shortlisted for the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Prize for her essay, "Embedded on the Home Front," which was published by Chatelaine.

Congratulations to QAC branch member Sandy Newton, co-author of Birds of Newfoundland: Field Guide. The guide was awarded the 2009 Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association's award for Best Atlantic Published Book. Sandy notes that she "wore many editorial hats in the preparation of this book, including researcher, writer, editor and ‘novice birder' test audience."

April 2010

BC branch member Georgina Montgomery recently collaborated with photographer Kevin Oke to write her first coffee table book. The Cowichan was published in October 2009 by Harbour Publishing as the latest in a series of titles showcasing British Columbia's special regions.

Saskatchewan branch member Don Ward was the first-prize winner in the short story category in CBC's 2009 Literary Awards. His story, "Badger," is about a priest who develops a relationship with a badger with whom he discusses philosophical and other matters. The story will be published in enRoute magazine and carries a $6,000 prize. 

Two books edited by Toronto branch member Rosemary Shipton have recently been recognized: John English's Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume Two: 1968–2000 won the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing; and David Hackett Fischer's Champlain's Dream: The Visionary Adventurer Who Made a New World in Canada was one of three finalists for the $75,000 2009 Cundill International Prize in History. 

March 2010

A book edited by Toronto branch member Rosemary Shipton was shortlisted for the prestigious 2010 Charles Taylor Award for Literary Non-Fiction. Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968–2000 by John English (published by Knopf Canada) did not win the award, but was one of four finalists chosen from a total of 125 submissions. Rosemary also edited two other books that were shortlisted for the Charles Taylor Award in 2008. Richard Gwyn's John A.: The Man Who Made Us won the prize.

February 2010

Congratulations to Toronto branch member Susan Hughes, who will celebrate the release of her new young adult novel, Virginia, on March 1. Published by Kids Can Press, the book is described as "a gripping story of an ordinary teenage girl drawn into an extraordinary chain of events." Also, this summer Scholastic Canada will publish Susan's book Canada's Birds as part of its "Canada Close Up" children's non-fiction series. Canada's Birds will be Susan's third title in the series.

January 2010

In November 2009, Prairie Provinces branch member Louise Dandeneau won first prize in the Rue Deschambault writing contest in Winnipeg. The contest, which was held by La Maison Gabrielle Roy and La Liberté, challenged entrants to write a short story with a street name as the title about an event that occurred in a childhood home. Louise also contributed a short story to the Sillons – hommage à Gabrielle Roy anthology published by Éditions de Blé in Winnipeg, November 2009. (2009 was the centennial anniversary of Gabrielle Roy's birth.)

In December 2009, QAC branch member Daphne Davey launched her new book Free to Roam: The Story of the Joyriders, 1979–2009. The book covers both the history of the Joyriders Therapeutic Riding Association of PEI, of which Daphne is a co-founder and instructor, as well as how and why the concept of horses as therapists works. Daphne's first print run of 200 books is close to selling out, with copies going across Canada and to the United States.

Also receiving good reviews is Adventures on the Ancient Silk Road, a new book by Toronto branch member Dawn Hunter. Co-written with Priscilla Galloway, the book was published in 2009 by Annick Press. This is Dawn's third book for young people.

December 2009

Congratulations to Nancy Flight, BC branch member and past president of EAC. Nancy was the editor of Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life by Brian Brett, which recently won The Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Congratulations also go to Toronto branch member Barbara Czarnecki who was the copy editor for the award-winning book.

Thumbs up to Prairie Provinces branch member Audrey Whitson for winning first prize in Room magazine's 2009 Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction Contest. Audrey took the top fiction prize for her story "The Glorious Mysteries," which will be published in Room's winter 2010 issue.

Kudos to Prairie Provinces branch member Karen Virag and former member Virginia Durksen. These self-described "blonde grammar mavens" are regular guests on CBC Radio's Wild Rose Country and Blue Sky call-in shows. The duo, which appears with host Donna McElligott, strives to bring clarity to the rules and opinions that inform the way we speak and judge the speech of others.

Do you have an achievement you'd like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your news to the member news coordinator, Marguerite Watson.