Celebrating Northern Writers
LitFest Awards Gala Recognizes Achievements in the Literary Community
Story by Sara Stoppel, Photos courtesy of Alan Dickson Photography
Last Saturday marked another successful year of recognizing the Northern writing community with the Northwestern Ontario Writers Workshop (NOWW) awards gala, the conclusion to their annual LitFest celebration of literary arts in the region. The 28th annual gala celebration took place at the Italian Cultural Centre, where David Giuliano and Laughing Fox, a writing collective, were both acknowledged for their contributions to the literary landscape of Northern Ontario and continued support of the writing community.
The recipient of this year’s Kouhi Award, which is presented to a regional writer who makes indispensable contributions to the writing community, was David Giuliano. In his over four-decade-long writing career, Giuliano has explored spirituality, ethics, and social justice through his dozens of articles, poems, and novels.
“It’s kind of a lifetime award, in a sense of ‘not that I’m done,’ but that it honours a large body of work, and so I’m happy about that,” he states. “It’s inspiring to have that affirmation from others, and it holds an offering that there's friends and people who have noticed that I’ve been toiling away for many years at this work.”
Giuliano's pieces have been published by The United Church Observer and his 2022 novel The Undertaking of Billy Buffone was awarded the AICW-Bressani Prize, along with other works receiving several notable awards.
The Margaret Phillips Award is another achievement award, which is presented to a person or organization that uplifts the literary community. This year’s Margaret Phillips Award went to Laughing Fox, a writing support group where members can discuss their work, learn, and meet like-minded people.
“[The Margaret Phillips Award] is the builder, to build a community. I know that sounds very cliché, but that’s what Margaret Phillips did, and for us to be recognized as actually doing that, it’s very impactful,” says Heather Dickson, a founding member of Laughing Fox, which has been a space for creatives in the community for over fifteen years.
“We recognized how important our informal connections with each other were, and how each of us had something to offer to the community as a whole, whether it was support or information or experience,” explains Jean E. Pendziwol, another founding member of Laughing Fox. “The stories of Northwestern Ontario, what we’re creating here, are important and deserve to be heard, deserve to be told,” Pendziwol says.
To learn more about NOWW, visit nowwwriters.ca.
