Winners of SAAG Arts Writing Prize Announced

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Vancouver-based Aretha Pereira and Calgary's Kiara Molina have won this year's SAAG Arts Writing Prizes for emerging writers, says the Southern Alberta Art Gallery in Lethbridge.

Pereira, an artist, illustrator and writer  from India who earned a BFA from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design, won the arts writing prize for her story, This Place. Her upbringing across Oman, Kuwait, Kenya and the United Arab Emirates informs her writing, which often reflects on memory, history and connection.

Molina, a student at  the University of Calgary with roots in El Salvador, wins the Aruna D’Souza Award for BIPOC writers for her story, El Desempeño/The Performance.

The winners each receive a $1,000 prize and a two-week residency at the Gushul Studio Writer’s Cottage in the Crowsnest Pass.

They were chosen by a jury composed of former prize winner Shazia Hafiz Ramji; Galleries West editor Portia Priegert; University of Lethbridge art historian Yvonne Tiger; and the gallery's IBPOC arts leader in residency, Bariyaa Ipaa.

An online reception celebrating those who submitted to the contest will be held Sept. 16.

Source: Southern Alberta Art Gallery