Kootenay Literary Competition award winners were announced at a gala event at the Prestige Resort in Nelson on Friday night. Over 200 people attended the free public event, which included readings by the first place winners in five categories and a special guest performance by Calgary poet Sheri-D Wilson.
This year's theme for the writing competition was "revolution" and the contest was open to writers across the East and West Kootenays. The first and second place winners in each category received prize money ($200 for first place, $100 for second), hotel stays, publication in the Kootenay Literary Competition 2012 Anthology and, for the youth, entry into a writing workshop.
The inaugural Richard Carver Award was also handed out at the gala. The award named for a past president of the Nelson and District Arts Council who passed away in 2009 recognizes a Kootenay author in the early stages of his or her career. This year the award went to Rossland author Darcee O'Hearn who writes the children's book series Legends of the Forest.
Other winners from this year's Kootenay Literary Competition were:
Gillian Wiley - first place youth grades 7-9 (from Nelson)
Abby Cowan - first place youth grades 10-12 (from Nelson)
Beverly Rasporich - first place adult fiction (from Invermere)
Vera Maloff - first place adult creative non-fiction (from Castlegar)
Sheila Murray-Nellis - first place adult poetry (from Kaslo)
The Kootenay Literary Competition 2012 Anthology is available for $6.95 at Otter Books.