Writers’ Trust of Canada / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize
Winner: $10,000; Finalists: $1,000
2012 Winner
Alex Pugsley
For “Crisis on Earth-X”
The Dalhousie Review
Citation
"Alex Pugsley’s “Crisis on Earth-X” sets up countless impossible hoops and then proceeds to jump through them in ways we could not have foreseen. Its sentences and its story surprised and amused us. It even broke our hearts in the way an excellent story can, so that we were glad to have them broken."
About the Story
Over the course of a single summer in 1970's Halifax, a crisis within a young boy’s family leads him to question his once-unshakable faith in his uncle.
About the Author
Alex Pugsley is a writer and filmmaker from Nova Scotia. As a screenwriter, he has written for performers such as Scott Thompson, Mark McKinney, Dan Aykroyd, Seán Cullen, and Michael Cera. He is the co-author of the novel Kay Darling, and his fiction has appeared in Brick, Descant, The Dalhousie Review, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, This Magazine, The Queen Street Quarterly, and other periodicals. “Crisis on Earth-X” is the fifth published story in a narrative series about the McKee and Mair families, set in twentieth-century Halifax.
Finalists
Kevin Hardcastle
For “To Have to Wait”
The Malahat Review
Andrew Hood
For “Manning”
PRISM international
The prize was awarded in Toronto at the Isabel Bader Theatre during the Writers’ Trust Awards event on November 7.
Finalists were selected by a three-member jury composed of Michael Christie, Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, and Kathleen Winter.
About the Prize
The Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize is awarded annually to a new and developing writer of distinction for a short story published in a Canadian literary publication. This award is made possible by James A. Michener’s generous donation of his Canadian royalty earnings from his novel Journey, published by McClelland & Stewart in 1988. The winner, selected by a three-member, independent judging panel, is announced at the Writers’ Trust Awards event. For more information about the prize visit the McClelland & Stewart website.
"I, for one, owe everything to the Journey Prize; I don't mean the money -- I mean the attention, the publicity, the boost in confidence ... . It got the ball rolling for me.”
Yann Martel Winner, 1991 Journey Prize