Dayne Ogilvie Prize
Winner: $4,000
Sponsored by Robin Pacific
The Sixth Annual Dayne Ogilvie Prize was presented on June 26, 2012 at the 519 Church Street Community Centre at an event hosted by Julie Wilson, “Book Madam” and author of Seen Reading. The recipients were selected by a jury of authors Kamal Al-Solaylee, Ivan E. Coyote, and Michael V. Smith, who was the inaugural winner of this prize.
Click here to see photos from the 2012 award presentation.
2012 Winner: Amber Dawn
Jury citation
Amber Dawn is an impressive, heart-stopping talent. Her debut novel, Sub Rosa, is a clear-eyed myth exploring the lives of young women at risk. Both fearless in its narrative and rich in its landscape of metaphor, Sub Rosa is a book that refuses to be overlooked. Dawn’s story is not just an attempt to hold the world’s darkness, but to find it some comfort too.
About the Author
Amber Dawn is a writer, filmmaker, and performance artist based in Vancouver. She is the author of the Lambda Award-winning novel Sub Rosa (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010), editor of Fist of the Spider Woman: Tales of Fear and Queer Desire (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009), and co-editor of With a Rough Tongue: Femmes Write Porn (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2005). Dawn has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Currently, she is the director of programming for the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.
Honor of Distinction: Mariko Tamaki
Jury citation 
Mariko Tamaki paints exquisite and highly perceptive portraits of life’s many collisions of identities and desires. In the heartbreakingly brilliant graphic novel Skim, Tamaki elevates teen angst to an epic tale of alienation and romance.
About the Author
Mariko Tamaki is a writer of books, comics, and plays. Her published work includes the graphic novel Skim (with Jillian Tamaki), which was nominated for the 2008 Governor General’s Literary Award in the category of children’s literature. Tamaki’s upcoming work includes a young adult novel (you) set me on fire, to be published by Penguin Canada in September 2012; and the comic book Awago Beach Babies (with Jillian Tamaki), to be published by First Second in 2013.
About the Prize
Established in 2007, the prize is presented to an emerging Canadian writer from the LGBT community who demonstrates great promise through a body of work of exceptional quality. Writers who identify themselves as LGBT are eligible and while no age restriction exists, the prize is intended for developing writers. The winner, selected by a three-member, independent judging panel, is presented with the grant annually.
About the Sponsor
The prize was established by Robin Pacific, a close personal friend of Dayne Ogilvie. Mr. Ogilvie was a highly respected freelance book editor, writer, and manager. A passionate lover of all the arts, he died in October 2006.