The $10,000 Journey Prize is awarded annually to an emerging writer of distinction. This award, now in its twenty-fourth year, and given for the twelfth time in association with the Writers’ Trust of Canada as the Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, is made possible by James A. Michener’s generous donation of his Canadian royalty earnings from his novel Journey, published by McClelland & Stewart in 1988. The Journey Prize itself is the most significant monetary award given in Canada to a developing writer for a short story or excerpt from a fiction work in progress. The winner of this year’s Journey Prize will be selected from among the thirteen stories in this book.
The Journey Prize Stories has established itself as the most prestigious annual fiction anthology in the country, introducing readers to the finest new literary writers from coast to coast for more than two decades. It has become a who’s who of up-and-coming writers, and many of the authors who have appeared in the anthology’s pages have gone on to distinguish themselves with collections of short stories, novels, and literary awards. The anthology comprises a selection from submissions made by the editors of literary journals from across the country, who have chosen what, in their view, is the most exciting writing in English that they have published in the previous year. In recognition of the vital role journals play in fostering literary voices, McClelland & Stewart makes its own award of $2,000 to the journal that originally published and submitted the winning entry.
This year the selection jury comprised three acclaimed writers:
Michael Christie’s debut collection, The Beggar’s Garden, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize, shortlisted for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and won the City of Vancouver Book Award. He received his MFA in Creative Writing at UBC in 2008. A two-time Journey Prize contributor, he now lives in Thunder Bay, where he is at work on a novel. For more information, please visit www.MichaelChristie.net.
Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer is the author of the novels Perfecting and The Nettle Spinner as well as the short fiction collection Way Up. Her short fiction has been published in The Walrus, Granta Magazine, and Storyville. She is the inaugural recipient of The Sidney Prize for Short Fiction. She is an award-winning creative writing instructor through the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies and Associate Faculty with the University of Guelph Creative Writing MFA. Please visit www.KathrynKuitenbrouwer.com.
Kathleen Winter’s first novel, Annabel, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, shortlisted for the Orange Prize, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize, the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award, and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and won the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. Her debut collection of stories, boYs, won the Winterset Award and the Metcalfe-Rooke Award. She lives in Montreal.
The jury read a total of eighty-two submissions without knowing the names of the authors or those of the journals in which the stories originally appeared. McClelland & Stewart would like to thank the jury for their efforts in selecting this year’s anthology and, ultimately, the winner of this year’s Journey Prize.
McClelland & Stewart would also like to acknowledge the continuing enthusiastic support of writers, literary journal editors, and the public in the common celebration of new voices in Canadian fiction.
For more information about The Journey Prize Stories, please visit www.mcclelland.com and www.facebook.com/TheJourneyPrize.