Community Event - Niagara - Rising Spirits Awards Celebration this Sunday
Award Winning Author Barbara Nichol joins The NOTL Writers `Circle`s 5th Annual Rising Spirits Awards Celebration to honour local writers.
Niagara-on-the-lake, On -August 27th, 2017: The winners of NOTL Writers `Circle’s 2017 Rising Spirits Writing Contest will be acknowledged at the Rising Spirits Celebration on Sunday, October 29th (7 p.m.) at The Cellar, The Old Winery`s spectacular event space. The Rising Spirits Awards Celebration has grown into an extraordinary community event with storytelling, music, and wine. This year The NOTL Writers’ Circle is especially excited to have award winning author and documentary maker Barbara Nichol as their key note speaker.
Barbara Nichol is a long time contributor to the CBC radio documentary series “Ideas.” Her book Dippers was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, and Biscuits in the Cupboard won the Mr. Christie’s Book Award. She is also well known as the author and director of the Juno award-winning original recording of Beethoven Lives Upstairs, and is the author of the book by the same title. Her film Home for Blind Women won the Genie for Best Short Film, and she was nominated for an Emmy for her work with Sesame Street.
Back by popular demand is spoken word artist Holmes Hookes who is returning to MC the Celebration. Wilfull Blues will also be taking the stage to entertain what is usually a sold out crowd.
With amazing prize packages and the opportunity to be published in the Rising Spirits Anthology, this year the NOTL Writers‘ Circle encouraged writers in the Niagara Region to submit short stories and poetry on the theme of The Canadian Spirit.
The winners have been announced as:
Non-Fiction:
3rd Place – Bill Hamilton for ‘What If’.
2nd Place – Christopher Gosling 2nd for ‘The Escalator’.
1st Place – Sharon Frayne for ‘Just a Cuppa Coffee’
Poetry:
3rd Place – Mike Kennan for ‘Canoe Lake’
2nd Place – Sally Basmajian for ‘Made in Canadian Heaven’
1st Place – Sharon Frayne for ‘The Shadow River’
Fiction:
3rd Place – Sharon Frayne for ‘Her Last Poem’
2nd Place – Valmai Howe Elkins for ‘The Maple Club’
1st Place – Catherine Skinner for ‘The Bone Garden’
Youth:
3rd Place – Julia Spears for ‘Home’
2nd Place – Athena Liu for ‘Proud to be Canadian, eh?’
1st Place – Baylee Jensen for ‘Me, Myself, and Canada’
Director and founder of The NOTL Writers’ Circle, Hermine Steinberg, believes passion for reading and writing can be contagious, a wonderful form of personal expression as well as a profound way of building connections between people. “Each of our stories is a thread woven into the Canadian tapestry, creating our national identity,” she explains.
To reserve a seat for the Rising Spirits Award Celebration, send an email to herminesteinberg1@gmail.com.
