New original writing from the 2016 Governor General's Literary Award winners
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: July 14, 2017 9:17 PM | Last Updated: October 31, 2017
The winners of the 2016 Governor General's Literary Awards are worried. It's evident in their winning books. What role does writing play in these anxieties?
In this special series, brought to you by CBC Books and the Canada Council for the Arts, six of this year's Governor General's Literary Award winners pinpoint what it means to write in worried times. They start with a driving question from their 2016 Governor General's Literary Award-winning works. Then they ask, "What's the way forward?"
- "In Praise of Disturbing Dreams" by Steven Heighton
- "Hi from Prison" by Martine Leavitt
- "Lissitsky's Anxiety Attack" by Lazer Lederhendler
- "Live for Me" by Colleen Murphy
- "Human and Wilderness" by Madeleine Thien
- "Why Can't We Get Along?" by Bill Waiser
Steven Heighton won the 2016 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry for his collection The Waking Comes Late. Martine Leavitt won in the young people's literature – text category for Calvin, and Lazer Lederhendler won for translation (French to English) for Catherine Leroux's The Party Wall. Colleen Murphy took the drama category for her play Pig Girl, Madeleine Thien won in fiction for Do Not Say We Have Nothing and Bill Waiser won in the nonfiction category for A World We Have Lost: Saskatchewan Before 1905.
Check out their original new pieces, and make sure to listen to this special CBC Radio Ideas broadcast devoted to Writing in Worried Times: