Call for Nominations: The 10th annual Carver Award for Emerging Writers opens on Monday, May 15 and close on Monday, June 26, 5 pm.
The Nelson and District Arts Council and Elephant Mountain Literary Festival request assistance in nominating emerging writers in West Kootenay communities for the 10th Annual Carver Award. The award, which comes with a $500 cash prize, will be presented at the Elephant Mountain Literary Festival in September 2023.
Nominations must be for writers just starting in their careers who have had one to two books published, or an equivalent body of work published in anthologies or literary journals. The work must be creative, literary writing, including fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and writing for children and teens. Self-published authors are eligible. Nominees, who must reside in the West Kootenay, are judged using three criteria: quality of work, the strength of nomination, and community engagement.
Nominations must include name and contact information for both the nominator and the nominee, writing discipline (fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, teen, children’s, etc), titles of published works and their publishers, and a paragraph outlining the reason for the nomination.
Richard Carver was a lover of the arts and the Kootenays, and he was invested in the community. He was a mover and shaker on the board of the Nelson and District Arts Council, the primary sponsor of this award named in his honour. His daughter Jocelyn Carver, an arts lover herself, has continued the family’s generous support of this award.
The 2022 recipient Zaynab Mohammed shares “Last year I received the Richard Carver Award for being a local emerging writer. Well, I have emerged! This award was like a set of wings for me to take flight. Since receiving this award, my career as a performance poet and writer propels me to new heights as each season passes. I’m thankful for my community, for the arts and for what is possible when we explore expression in thoughtful and creative ways.”
After Richard passed away in 2009, the Arts Council founded this award, which has been awarded nine times. For full information please visit the Nelson and District Arts Council website at www.ndac.ca Nominations are submitted at www.ndac.ca/richardcarveraward Inquiries may be sent to: richardcarveraward@gmail.com with “Carver Award” in the subject line. The deadline for nominations is Monday, June 26, 5 pm. Contact Richard Carver Award Coordinator Stephanie Myers, richardcarveraward@gmail.com cell: 250-505-7410.
Nelson & District Arts Council