Good News from The Word Guild’s Writing AwardsPosted by Maxine on June 15th, 2012

When Bethany Murphy, Associate Editor of _Crux,_  entered two of my articles from 2011 in The Word Guild’s Canadian Christian Writing Awards, I was honoured. When both of the articles, Aging as a Stage of the Heroic Pilgrimage of Faith” (Spring 2011), and “Remembering Margaret Avison / Margaret Avison Remembering” (Summer 2011) were short-listed in the Long Feature Article division, I was glad. And when I learned recently that my piece on Margaret Avison had won, I was thrilled–partly because it acknowledged that I had honoured Margaret Avison and a treasured friendshp well; partly because _Crux_ (published by Regent College as “a journal of Christian thought and opinion,”) deserves to be better known and more widely read–Julie Lane Gay, Editor, and  Bethany Murphy, Associate Editor, together with Rosi Petkova, Designer, carrying on the legacy of Dal Schindell in producing a journal of excellence; and partly…well…just because it doesn’t matter how long you write, you always feel fragile when you send your work out to the world, and receiving this kind of award is a great encouragement.

My joy was deepened further by the success of some young people I know and care about: Lance Odegard won the Poetry division for his poem, “Ark,” also published in _Crux_, and Kurt Armstrong won for best Review Article–both of these are Regent alumni, and survivors of my “Creative Non-Fiction Writing” course at Regent College.  That gave me the teacher’s glow of pleasure when her students excel.  With yet another kind of pleasure, I was pleased to see Sally Ito gain an Award of Merit for her stunning book-length collection of poems, _Alert to Glory_ (Turnstone Press), and Drew Dyck, whose parents are dear friends of ours from days when all our kids were littluns, win in the Profile/Human Interest Article category. It’s so good to see the new generation of Canadian writers who are Christian emerging to take their places of leadership and recognition.

This, then, is to say a big “thank you” to The Word Guild for running this awards programme & to publishers who take the time and trouble to enter our work.  Pressing on…