N.L. writers sweep $25K fiction award shortlist
Stephanie Tobin | CBC News | Posted: June 5, 2019 3:21 PM | Last Updated: June 5, 2019
Sharon Bala, Elisabeth de Mariaffi and Lisa Moore all write in St. John's
A prestigious fiction award set to be handed out this week as part of the Atlantic Book Awards will be given to a writer from Newfoundland and Labrador, as all three nominees hail from St. John's.
Sharon Bala, Elisabeth de Mariaffi and Lisa Moore are all up for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, an honour that comes with $25,000.
The three women are familiar with each other's work, of course — something pretty common in the city's writing scene.
"It's such a real delight to be nominated with other authors that you not only like personally, not only have felt mentored by, but, like, I truly enjoy their books," said de Mariaffi.
"I feel like I'm in such great company and I assume everyone feels the same way."
That's a sentiment Moore agrees with, adding there is a particular glut of amazing work coming out of the region.
"It's pretty exciting because there's a tremendous amount of books coming out of Atlantic Canada right now and the quality is through the roof," Moore said.
"There was just an alchemy of all the right things and we're pretty lucky."
Bala was quick to point out she's nominated for another award for best first book, alongside another St. John's writer, Susan Sinott, and her work Catching the Light.
I have felt both of these women have lifted me up and allowed me to be where I am right now. - Sharon Bala
"She lives around the corner from me, basically, and we're in the same writing group," said Bala.
Such a tight-knit writing community is pretty typical for St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Atlantic Canada, as a whole, said the writers.
Bala, de Mariaffi and Moore all gushed about one another's books when interviewed on The St. John's Morning Show, making it a pretty friendly competition for the award.
"The thing about living out here is that you do feel like you have to … lift each other up," said Bala.
"Not in a sense of a hard responsibility, but more in a sense of … I have felt both of these women have lifted me up and allowed me to be where I am right now."
De Mariaffi agreed that it's a community with strong support for one another, adding that in the political and culture climate of today, writers and readers alike need to keep that tight hold on the value of a story.
"We live in this culture where it's so easy to just sort of fire off a comment or fire off a tweet and the level of social responsibility there that we have to take, as a community, sometimes breaks down," she said.
"So the more intimate experience of writing in a permanent way, to be read in a permanent way … that's an incredibly intimate experience that you're having with the book, and, really, the conversation becomes between the reader and the book, and the reader gets to sort of interrogate themselves."
There is a specific onus on authors and writers, Moore added, saying writers are often on the outskirts of society, offering a different perspective than may be commonly portrayed.
"It's sort of like that thing of, I wouldn't belong to a group that would have me as a member," Moore said with a laugh.
"We're outside looking in and critiquing, and that's a big part of our job."
The Atlantic Book Awards gala is happening Thursday night at the Sheraton Hotel in St. John's. The event is being held in conjunction with the East Bound Conference 2019, which has literary events across Atlantic Canada.