The May 1st deadline for BC seniors’ submissions to this year’s Cedric Literary Awards is fast approaching.
Entries from unpublished authors, 50 years old and better, are being received daily and awards executive director Veronica Osborn is keen to exceed last year’s total of 168 entries that came from as far as Pink Mountain in the north to Oak Bay in the south.
“The Cedric Literary Awards is changing the landscape of literary award programs by providing a unique platform to recognize and reward unpublished authors of fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry, who are over the age of 50,” Osborn says.
Also included in the competition this year are First Nations writers and those who write prose and poetry in French.
Wendy Donawa, a 2015 shortlisted writer, says: “These awards are a generous endeavor and acknowledge the serious work of a largely unacknowledged demographic. Certainly for women of my generation, it is only after a busy life of domestic and professional work that we can give the focused time and energy that a serious writing practice requires.”
The Cedric Literary Awards is a juried writing competition that encourages and celebrates the creative talents of BC writers who have a lifetime of experience to share. A prize of $3,000 goes to the winner in each of the four categories: Fiction, Creative Non-fiction, Poetry and First Nations Writing.
Originally conceived and funded by Dr. Peter Dale, Chair of Betterthan50, “the Cedrics” have been incorporated as a non-profit organization. The competition will go Canada-wide in 2017.
“I encourage and welcome all BC writers ‘of a certain age’ to add their manuscripts to those we’ve already received,” says Osborn.
“If last year’s competition was anything to go by, there is a deep pool of writing talent in our 50-plus demographic.”
Visit the website at: www.thecedrics.ca or email Veronica at vosborn@thecedrics.ca.
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