Canwrite 2010 winds down with adventure and prizes

The CAA 2010 Canwrite! conference is over. The final event was the Awards Banquet.


Photo: Moderating the awards banquet, National President Anthony Dalton introduces guest speakers while Conference Chair Jean Kay relaxes after her working her organizational magic.

Julie and Colin Angus told a rapt audience about two astonishing adventure journeys they undertook using human power alone.

The first began in Scotland, took them through thirteen countries by rowboat and bicycle to Syria and lasted about seven months. The second trip was more ambitious. Beginning in Vancouver, the two cycled north to the Bering Sea and crossed to Siberia, then worked their way west, suiting their means of travel to climate.

From Portugal they rowed across the Atlantic in a specially prepared 20-foot boat. Five months and two anomalous hurricanes later, they arrived in Costa Rica. After traveling north by bicycle through Central America, Mexico and the US, they finally arrived home. On that trip, the couple clocked two years and 42,000 kilometres.

Following the guest speaker presentation, the 2009 CAA Awards were announced. Rachelle Delaney of Vancouver was delighted to accept the Emerging Writer Award for her kids' pirate yarn The Ship of Lost Souls (HarperCollins Publishing.)

The other recipients, unable to attend, were awarded their prizes in absentia. Tom Dawe of Conception Bay, Newfoundland got the poetry award for Where Genesis Begins (Breakwater Books). The Carol Bolt Award for Drama was awarded to Michael Nathanson of Winnipeg, and Jonathan Vance of London, Ontario won the Canadian History Award. The fiction award went to Newfoundlander Michael Crummy for Galore (Doubleday Canada).

Finally, the Allan Sangster Award for service to the Association was awarded to Walter McConville and accepted by fellow-Victoria CAA member Sheila Martindale. The evening ended with the winning bidders picking up their fabulous silent auction prizes, from fine jewelry to nights in the Royal York and afternoon tea for two at the Victoria's famous Empress Hotel.

This year's focus was on technology in writing, and members got loads of up-to-date information, along with plenty of encouragement and inspiration. Hats off to Jean Kay for being the major power behind this great event, and to all the others who helped her make Canwrite 2010 such a resounding success.