It was a slow Monday evening, I had just finished my dinner and I was washing the dishes when I got a call from a friend who works with the Quebec Writer’s Federation.
“Alain, I hope you are available? Our regular photographer just had an accident and we need a photographer right now for our gala event. Can you come?”
“Sure, I will be right there.”
I took a look at Google maps and concluded that I could get there faster by jogging than by taking public transportation.
I put on my jacket, got all my camera gear inside my bag and started jogging. I got to the venue as the event was getting started. Uff, that was a close call. The event was going to be photographed and the images will be shared with the thousands of present and future Quebec English Writers.
The Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF) is a not-for-profit charitable organization representing and serving the English-language literary community in Quebec, Canada.
Every year, The Quebec Writer’s Federation presents literary awards to the best works of literature in English by writers from Quebec. The award has been presented since 1988.
This year’s gala bestowed the largest number of awards in QWF history. The prices given this year 2022 were:
- 2022 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry: David Bradford for Dream of No One but Myself
- 2022 Concordia First Book Prize: Trynne Delaney for the half-drowned
- 2022 QWF Playwriting Prize: Erin Shields for The Millennial Malcontent
- Prix de traduction de la fondation Cole 2022: Nicolas Calvé for Plus aucun enfant autochtone arraché
- 2022 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction: Marc Raboy for Looking for Alicia: The Unfinished Life of an Argentinian Rebel
- 2022 Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Matthew Forsythe for Mina
- 2022 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction: Baharan Baniahmadi for Prophetess
- 2022 QWF Spoken Word Prize:
- Lucia De Luca for “Not in the Bike Commercial”
- Roen Higgins for “Free Your Mind”
- Erín Moure for “Odiama”
- Other Prizes Awarded at the 2022 QWF Gala:
- 2022 QWF Judy Mappin Community Award on Ian Ferrier, founder of the Words and Music Show and Wired on Words.
- The carte blanche Prize was awarded to Meryem Yildiz for her poem “Some Kind of Light”
- Neil Smith for “The Salad Spinner”
- Simon Brown for “Gardens of Dirty Laundry”
- Eden Andrews of Dawson College won the QWF College Writers Award for her piece “Misremembering.”
The event was a smashing success and I have the photos to prove it. Thank Quebec Writer’s Federation for hiring me. I hope to see you again in future events.
