MFA Student Wins Writing Award
June 10, 2010 - News Release
A University of Guelph graduate student has received the 2010 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers, administered by the Writers' Trust of Canada.
Kilby Smith-McGregor, a second-year student in U of G's MFA program in creative writing, won for her short story The Bird in the Hand. The winner was announced during an event in Toronto Wednesday night. She receives a $5,000 cash prize.
Her story was selected by a three-member judging panel. The judges described it as "a beautifully crafted story that deftly suggests a world and a life beyond its few pages." Smith-McGregor was named one of three finalists for the award in April, selected from among 132 submissions.
The annual award, which alternates between honouring short fiction and poetry, is presented to a writer under the age of 35 who has yet to have a book published and is without a book contract.
Smith-McGregor has had stories published in the literary journals Brick and the Dublin Quarterly, as well as in micropublisher Cyclops Press's Cyclops Review.
The Bronwen Wallace Award was established in 1994 by friends of the writer, poet and creative writing teacher, who died in 1989.
The award is supported by the RBC Foundation through the RBC Emerging Artists Project, which invests in young artists and helps them build their careers.
The Writers’ Trust of Canada is a charitable organization that supports Canadian writers and writing through various programs, including literary awards, financial grants, workshops, scholarships and a writers’ retreat.
