The Elizabeth Kouhi Award, named in honour of Thunder Bay poet Elizabeth Kouhi, is awarded each year to a writer whose body of work has a significant history of contributing to the literature of Northwestern Ontario. The 2011 Elizabeth Kouhi Award will be presented to Thunder Bay’s Bill MacDonald. Bill MacDonald has worked as a logger, weatherman, immigration officer, schoolteacher and writer. He is the author of is the author of many books, most recently Sirens, The Quarry, Ruby’s Last Ride and Other Stories, and Shadows at Sunset, all published by Borealis Press.
The Sheila Burnford Builders Award, named for writer Sheila Burnford, whose beloved story The Incredible Journey was set in Northwestern Ontario, was first awarded in 2009 to recognize a “builder”— someone who has made outstanding contributions to publishing, promoting, or supporting the literature of Northwestern Ontario. The recipients of the 2011 Burnford Award are Barb Matousek and Wendy MacDonald of Sioux Lookout. Barb and Wendy are the co-chairs of the Sioux Lookout Literacy Committee. In this capacity they have organized events to promote literacy and literature in Sioux Lookout and in the north since 2002, creating opportunities for writing and literary learning and exchange, such as the annual Sioux Lookout Literacy Festival, that have reached thousands of children and adults in Northwestern Ontario remote communities.
The Kouhi and Burnford Awards will be presented at NOWW’s annual Literary Awards Party and Fundraising event on Saturday, May 21, from 7 to 10:30 p.m. at the Current River Community Center, 450 Dewe Street, Thunder Bay. Tickets are $20 in advance, or $25 at the door. For more information, please contact Amy at admin@nowwwriters.org.
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