The Writers’ Union of Canada and John Gleed are pleased to announce that Sarah Roberts is the recipient of the $10,000 DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD for Wax Boats (Caitlin Press), judged the best first English-language collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2009.

Judges Ivan E. Coyote, Mary Soderstrom, and David Bezmozgis said “Sarah Roberts's Wax Boats is a truly remarkable collection. Roberts exhibits tremendous versatility, writing movingly and convincingly in every conceivable voice--of the men and women, girls and boys, natives and whites who inhabit her fictional Smokecrest Island. There are stories here of loss and renewal, of strange adventures, and of acts of profound kindness. The prose is clear and evocative and flawless. Roberts is a truly gifted storyteller and Wax Boats is a mature and ambitious work of literature. It is a Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town for the modern age.”

Runner-up Deborah Willis will receive $500.

Of Deborah Willis’s Vanishing and Other Stories (Penguin) the judges had this to say: “Whether the main character is a father trying to bring his strung-out doctor daughter down to earth, a woman involved with one of her students, or a teenaged couple almost losing a five year old boy, Deborah Willis in Vanishing gives us fine stories in the tradition of Mavis Gallant and Alice Munro.”

The DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD is given in celebration of the life of Danuta Gleed, a writer whose short fiction won several awards before her death in December 1996. Danuta Gleed’s first collection of short fiction, One of the Chosen, was posthumously published by BuschekBooks. The Award is made possible through a generous donation from John Gleed, founder of JetForm Inc., in memory of his late wife, and is administered by The Writers' Union of Canada.

The Writers' Union of Canada is our country's national organization representing professional authors of books. Founded in 1973, the Union is dedicated to fostering writing in Canada, and promoting the rights, freedoms, and economic well being of all writers. For more information, please visit www.writersunion.ca.

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