Current Award Winners

The 2011 winner is Tom Rachman, London, England, for The Imperfectionists (Dial Press, distributed by Random House of Canada). Prize: $2000 and a silver medal.

Tom Rachman was born in London and raised in Vancouver. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the Columbia School of Journalism, he has been a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press, stationed in Rome. From 2006 to 2008, he worked as an editor at the International Herald Tribune in Paris. He now lives in London, England where he is working on his second novel.

The 2011 winner is Shelagh D. Grant, Peterborough, Ontario, for Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America (Douglas & McIntyre). Prize: $2000 and a silver medal.

Shelagh D. Grant is the author of the Clio Award-winning Arctic Justice: On Trial for Murder, Pond Inlet 1923; Sovereignty or Security? Government Policy in the Canadian North, 1936–1950; and more recently, Mittimatalik-Pond Inlet: A History, translated into Inuktitut. She is an adjunct professor in the Canadian Studies Program and research associate of the Frost Centre for Canadian Studies at Trent University, and she lives in Peterborough, Ontario.

The 2011 winner is Julia McCarthy, Upper Kennetcook, Nova Scotia, for Return from Erebus (Brick Books). Prize: $1000 and a silver medal.

Julia McCarthy is originally from Toronto. She spent ten years living in the United States, most notably Alaska and Georgia. She has also lived in Norway and spent significant time in South Africa. Her previous collection of poetry, Stormthrower, was published by Wolsak and Wynn in 2002. She now resides in Nova Scotia where she works as a freelance writer and editor. Return from Erebus is her second poetry collection.

The 2011 winner is Titilope Sonuga, Edmonton, Alberta, for Down to Earth (self-published). Prize: $500.

Titilope Sonuga is a Nigerian-born spoken word poet and author of a collection of poems called Down to Earth. Titilope is currently based in Edmonton, Alberta, and plays an active role in the local and regional poetry community as a member of the board of directors for the Edmonton Poetry Festival and SpoCan (Spoken Word of Canada). She is the founding member of the Breath in Poetry Collective, a group of poets and poetry enthusiasts that create spaces for artistic expression in the Edmonton community. Titilope is currently completing an artist residency in Cape Town, South Africa. Visit www.escapetown.wordpress.com.

Words of Acceptance

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Canadian Authors Association for this recognition of my work. My dream as a writer and a poet is that any person can find a thread of their own truths in the every story that I tell. To receive the Emerging Writer Award means to me that I am one step closer to that dream. I would like to congratulate all the nominees and award winners honoured here tonight. In the words of Anais Nin, The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. Thank you all for giving us voice through your work.

The Allan Sangster Award honours one of the CAA's own members for long and meritorious service to the Association. Learn more about this award and its history

The recipient of the 2011 Allan Sangster Award is Anthony Dalton, CAA Past President and Chair, Awards Committee.

Anthony Dalton is an author, freelance writer, photographer and lecturer. Author of eleven non-fiction books and co-author of two others, his illustrated non-fiction articles have been published in magazines and newspapers in twenty countries and nine languages. A British-born Canadian adventurer and author he is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a Fellow of the Explorers Club. His expeditions have taken him across the Sahara many times, through the deserts of the Middle East, into the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, on dangerous Arctic waters, and canoeing wilderness rivers in northern Canada. He was the organizer and leader of a CBC-TV filming expedition to the Saharan salt mines of Taoudenit in northern Mali, and participated in a television documentary on great Canadian rivers for the Discovery Channel. He received a Special Achievement Award for his literary works and his contributions to the literary community at the 2009 Surrey International Writers Conference.

Selection Committee Comments

Anthony Dalton joined the Vancouver Branch of the Canadian Authors Association in 2003 and at the Edmonton conference that year, quickly accepted Vancouver Branch President Bernice Lever's request to be co-chair of the Vancouver 2004 CAA Conference. He was an excellent organizer and enthusiastic emcee at that conference. He gave CAA workshops and/or talks in Vancouver and Victoria as well as spreading his pride in CAA at other events where he was the guest speaker, such as at Surrey International Writers Conference. In 2007, he became the Vancouver Branch President and then the National CAA president, as he took an active role in aiding the national office move and re-organization. Anthony is an avid attender and presenter at annual conferences, especially at the Victoria CanWrite! conference in 2010. He shares his broad knowledge of organizational procedures with the branch and national executives — always in a clear and friendly manner. Despite a very busy schedule, Anthony somehow manages to find time and energy to give feedback and advice to local aspiring and emerging authors.