***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE***
SUNBURST AWARD ANNOUNCES THE 2011 ANNUAL SUNBURST AWARD WINNERS OF ITS $1,000 LITERARY PRIZE
Toronto, Ontario (September 15, 2011) The Sunburst Award Committee is pleased to announce that the winner of its 2011 adult award is Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay (Penguin Group Canada, ISBN – 0670068098) and the winner of its 2011 young adult award is Bookweirder by Paul Glennon (Doubleday Canada, ISBN – 0385665482)
The awards were presented last night during an Authors at Harbourfront Centre event following readings from each of the short-listed works. For more information and to view photos of the ceremony please see: http://www.sunburstaward.org/content/2011-winners
About Under Heaven, the Sunburst jury said: “This is a beautifully-written, fascinating, epic alternate history with engaging, believable characters; evocative, moody, lyrical, emotionally touching, with cleverly elaborate plotting.”
About Bookweirder, the Sunburst Jury said: “This story evokes what the first few years of real reading were like – tumbling into story after story and losing track of the boundary between oneself and the books for a while. A must for any book-lover of any age.”
The jurors for the 2011 award were Kate Freiman, Mark Leslie, Christopher Roden, and Alison Sinclair.
The other shortlisted works for the 2011 adult award were:
Robert J. Sawyer, Watch: (Penguin Group Canada, ISBN – 0670067423)
Douglas Smith, Chimerascope: (ChiZine Publications, ISBN – 0981297854)
S.M. Stirling, A Taint in the Blood: (New American Library, ISBN – 0451463412)
Hayden Trenholm, Stealing Home: (Bundoran Press, ISBN – 0978205251)
The other shortlisted works for the 2011 young adult award were:
Holly Bennett, Shapeshifter: (Orca Book Publishers, ISBN – 1554691583)
Erin Bow, Plain Kate: (Scholastic, ISBN – 0545166640)
Charles De Lint, The Painted Boy: (Penguin Young Reader Group, ISBN – 0670011916)
Robert Paul Weston, Dust City: (Penguin Group Canada, ISBN – 0670063967)
Guy Gavriel Kay lives in Toronto. Paul Glennon was born in England but has lived and worked in Ottawa since 1975.
The 2012 Award jurors will be Douglas Barbour, Zsuzsi Gartner, Daniel Justice, Lorna Toolis and Halli Villegas.
The Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is an annual award celebrating the best in Canadian fantastic literature published during the previous calendar year.
The winners receive a cash prize of $1,000 as well as a hand-crafted medallion which incorporates the Sunburst logo.
The Sunburst Award takes its name from the debut novel of the late Phyllis Gotlieb, one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian speculative fiction.
For additional information about the Sunburst Award, the nominees and jurors, as well as previous awards, eligibility and the selection process, please visit the website at www.sunburstaward.org