SAAG Arts Writing Prize Winners Announced

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The Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge has announced the winners of the the 11th annual SAAG Arts Writing Prize, which recognizes emerging arts writers, critics and poets. 

Thorne Shouting, a member of the Blackfoot First Nation, is the winner of the Aruna D'Souza Award (BIPOC)  for his uncompromising poem, Reconciliation. 

Charlie Topnik, a non binary self-described "book nerd" based in Winnipeg, has won in the Arts Writing Prize category for their prose piece, Nightwalking, written with a gritty, internalized perspective.

The winners each receive a $1,000 prize, a two-week residency at the Gushul Studio Writer’s Cottage in the Crowsnest Pass, and an editorial mentorship opportunity to write about a current exhibition for Galleries West  magazine. 

Winners were chosen by a jury that included editor, writer and curator Aruna D’Souza; Moni Brar, the 2021 Aruna D’Souza Award winner; Galleries West editor Portia Priegert; and Adam Whitford, the interim curator of the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.

All entries will be published in the SAAG Arts Writing Prize Reader 2022, made in-house at the gallery’s Tiny Press bookbinding studio. Participants will receive a copy of the publication.

The contest defines an emerging writer as anyone who has not published more than one piece of writing in a recognized print or online publication, exclusive of student-run journals and magazines, as well as self-published works.

Source: Southern Alberta Art Gallery