Retired publisher John W. Irwin and his wife, professor Eleanor Irwin, launch the Grace Irwin Award by donating a record cash prize for Canadian writers who are Christian.
TORONTO – The Word Guild has announced Canada's largest literary prize for writers who are Christian. A new $5,000 award has been established to honour the late author Grace Irwin. It will celebrate the best book published in 2009 by a Canadian author who writes from a Christian worldview.
All shortlisted finalists in fiction and nonfiction book categories in The Word Guild Canadian Christian Writing Awards will contend for the Grace Irwin Award. A separate round of independent judging will determine the inaugural prizewinner, who will be announced on June 16, 2010 at a black-tie Awards Gala.
The Word Guild initiated this award to help develop the careers of gifted writers, bring more attention to Christian writers in Canada, and generate increased book sales.
The award's namesake, Grace Lilian Irwin, was a trailblazing Canadian Christian writer who published both fiction and nonfiction. She passed away in September 2008 at age 101 after a vibrant life as an author, Classics scholar and ordained minister. Her alma mater, University of Toronto's Victoria College, called her "an inspirational force in the lives of all who knew her."
During her 38-year career teaching English, Latin and Greek at Humberside Collegiate 
Institute in Toronto, she spent her summers writing at her cottage in Haliburton, Ontario. Her first and best-known novel, Least of All Saints, was published in 1952 by McLelland & Stewart. Seven additional books were published in a 50-year period, including the dramatized biography Servant of Slaves (about British slave trader and hymn writer John Newton), which was praised by a University of Toronto review as the best historical novel of 1961.
The award is co-sponsored by The Word Guild, a national association that represents more than 350 Canadian writers and editors who are Christian. The Word Guild conferred Grace Irwin with the Leslie K. Tarr Award in 2002 for outstanding career contribution to Christian writing and publishing in Canada. Other Tarr Award recipients include Governor General's Literary Award winners Margaret Avison and Rudy Wiebe.
Retired book publisher and nephew of Grace Irwin, John W. Irwin, and his wife Eleanor have donated the cash prize. M. Eleanor Irwin, PhD, is a retired associate professor of Latin and Greek at University of Toronto Scarborough. John formerly owned a Canadian educational publishing house. His four decades of church and community volunteerism include serving on the board of Christian Info Canada, the parent organization of The Word Guild.
"As a career book publisher, I understand the importance to any author of public recognition of his or her work by winning a juried prize," John explained. "The Irwin family is happy to offer the Grace Irwin Award in recognition of a remarkable life, well lived. We pray that it will assist in the recognition of other Canadian writers of distinction."
Recent Comments