Annual CAA Literary Awards

Two Solitudes, by Hugh Maclennan, was the 1945 winner of the Governor General's Literary Awards. It originally sold a remarkable 47,000 copies (John Meier, McMaster U) and has been re-issued many times since.

As part of the annual Canadian Authors' Association conference, the Literary Awards were announced on Saturday night in Orillia, Ontario, the hometown of Stephen Leacock, who was a professor of mathematics at McGill University as well as Canada's most beloved writer of comedy. Leacock was also a founding member of the CAA.

Last night, the Fiction Award went to Christopher Meades. His novel, The Last Hiccup (ECW Press) beat out the work of fellow-nominees Tricia Dower, Stoney River (Penguin), and Vincent Lam's latest, The Headmaster's Wager, reviewed here in Quill and Quire.

The poetry prize went to Newfoundlander Don McKay for Paradoxides (McClelland and Stewart). Fellow contenders were Julie Bruck (Monkey Ranch) and Emily McGiffin (Between Dusk and Night).

Two young writers, Jay Bahadur and Claire Battershill, share the 2013 prize for emerging writers. Battershill recently won a CBC prize for her short story "Circus", and the young journalist Bahadur wrote a book called The Pirates of Somalia (Random House).

Congratulations to all.