WINNER Announcement: NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2024
(June 13, 2024) – WritersNL is pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 Fresh Fish Award, presented bi-annually by NLCU.
The Fresh Fish Award is one of Canada’s most lucrative literary awards for unpublished writers. The Award provides emerging writers in the province with financial support, recognition, and professional editing services for a book-length manuscript in any genre.
The winning author will receive a cash prize of $5,200 and $1,000 towards professional editing services for the winning manuscript.
The runners-up will each receive $1,200.
“Some of the best literary works in Canada have been written by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians,” NLCU Chief Executive Officer Glenn Bolger told WritersNL.
“We are proud to help support the next generation of talented writers in our province through the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers.”
The 2024 NLCU Fresh Fish Award Winner is:
“Those Who Stay” by Sabrina Pinksen
Sabrina says: “I’m deeply grateful to WritersNL & NLCU for this award and the financial support that comes with it. Being a writer in Newfoundland & Labrador is such a gift and WritersNL is a big reason why. The work they do for emerging writers and to connect writers across the province is so impactful and important. My biggest thank you to everyone involved.”
Scroll down below for more photos from the 2024 Fresh Fish Awards!
L-R: Veronica Dymond, Sabrina Pinksen, S.A. Leger, Glenn Bolger
Read what our jury said about Sabrina’s winning manuscript:
“I think about what makes a person a lot” the narrator says on the first page of Those Who Stay. This is a novel about “what makes a person,” as well as what makes a family and a community.
Those Who Stay successfully strikes a balance: it is a tightly focused story about intimate, deeply personal emotions and relationships, while also being an expansive novel shifting between multiple time periods and points of view. The writing is fresh and vivid, with a compelling voice firmly grounded in story, character, and place.
A sudden tragedy is the catalyst for this exploration of grief, identity, and belonging. When Jeannine receives news of a death in the family, her vacation is cut short – but the disruption is only beginning. Thrown into close contact with immediate and extended family as they navigate this loss, Jeannine confronts questions about who she is in relation to, and apart from, these people. The novel explores how the idea of “home” shapes identity for members of a Newfoundland family divided, as so many are, between those who go away and those who stay.
Those Who Stay is an ambitious and accomplished novel; reading it is a rich and rewarding experience.”
Congratulations to all 2024 Fresh Fish finalists:
Shortlist:
“I Kill Myself – A Live Comedy Show – Veronica Dymond
the big bad – S.A. Leger
Longlist:
Green – Paul Moorehead
The Swamp Hag of Hurricane Island and Other Stories – Kira Sheppard
The Clearing – E. Catherine Daley
(Please note: some shortlisted and longlisted names have been slightly changed/edited due to author preference.)
Thank-you for attending the 2024 Fresh Fish Awards!
View all photos by Alick Tsui Photography on our Facebook page.
The spread of WritersNL swag – almost as good as the spread from Manna Bakery!
NLCU representatives Glenn Bolger and Kelly-Ann Meadus – thanks for your support!
The crowd listening intently to our shortlisted author readings in this bright and beautiful space.
In a play reading that doubled as a theatrical performance, Veronica Dymond became one of her play’s characters, Steve, who taught us about “social constructs”.
S.A. Leger reads from her shortlisted works – We think S.A. has perhaps invented a new genre…”Sci-Po”: scientific poetry!
Winner Sabrina Pinksen reads from her shortlisted works, also providing accents for the characters within her manuscript.
The crowd applauds the shortlisted and longlisted authors, as well as the jury, supporters, funders, committees, and staff involved in putting together the bi-annual Fresh Fish Awards.
NLCU’s Glenn Bolger strikes a pose with 2024 NLCU Fresh Fish Winner Sabrina Pinksen.
From L-R: WritersNL staff members Wendy Rose and Jen Winsor, shortlisted author Veronica Dymond, winner Sabrina Pinksen, shortlisted author S.A. Leger, NLCU Chief Executive Officer Glenn Bolger.
Thank-you to the 2024 Fresh Fish Jury:
Joshua Goudie
Joshua Goudie’s short stories have appeared in numerous publications and anthologies. He has been shortlisted for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award and awarded the Riddle Fence Prize for Fiction and the NL Arts and Letters Percy Janes First Novel Award. He is the author of two works of children’s fiction, as well as the collection of children’s narrative poetry, Where the Crooked Lighthouse Shines (Breakwater Books). Joshua lives and writes in St. John’s, NL.
Tia McLennan
Tia McLennan’s poetry has appeared in various Canadian literary journals including Riddle Fence, Vallum, Arc, CV2, Room, and Prairie Fire. In 2022, she won the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for her unpublished poetry manuscript. Her first book of poetry, Familiar Monsters of the Flood was published in April 2024 with Riddle Fence Publishing. She holds an interdisciplinary MFA in creative writing and visual art from UBC Okanagan, and a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. Originally from so-called Vancouver Island, B.C., (territory of the K’ómoks people), she recently spent ten years in St. John’s, ktaqmkuk and now resides in kalpilin (Pender Harbour) B.C., unceded territory of the shíshalh Nation, with her partner, their 6-year-old son and their beloved cat Basho.
Trudy Morgan-Cole
Trudy Morgan-Cole is a writer and educator in St. John’s. Her historical fiction includes By the Rivers of Brooklyn, That Forgetful Shore, Most Anything You Please, and A Sudden Sun. She loves re-imagining lost and marginalized stories from history, particularly women’s stories. Her Cupids trilogy, a fictional exploration of the earliest English settlements in Newfoundland, began with A Roll of the Bones in 2019, continued in Such Miracles and Mischiefs in 2021, and concluded in 2023 with A Company of Rogues, all published by Breakwater Books.
For any questions or media inquiries, please contact Executive Director Jen Winsor at director@writersnl.ca or 709-739-5215
Shortlist Announcement: NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2024
(June 3, 2024) – WritersNL is excited to announce the shortlist finalists for the 2024 Fresh Fish Award, presented bi-annually by NLCU.
One of the country’s most lucrative literary awards for unpublished writers, the Fresh Fish Award provides emerging writers in the province with financial support, recognition, and professional editing services for a book-length manuscript in any genre.
The winning author will receive a cash prize of $5,200 and $1,000 towards professional editing services for the winning manuscript. The runners-up will each receive $1,200.
This year’s shortlist finalists are:
(listed alphabetically by last name)
I Kill Myself – A Live Comedy Show – Veronica Dymond
the big bad – Stephanie Leger
Those Who Stay – Sabrina Pinksen
2024 Fresh Fish Jury Comments:
“I Kill Myself – A Live Comedy Show by Veronica Dymond
Juror Joshua Goudie says: “The piece begins by meeting the reader’s (or the audience’s) expectations, then immediately subverting them. This happens multiple times throughout the script; the writer will toe the line of an established trope or convention, and then use these premises to vault themselves into new territory. What results is a reader (or audience member) who feels secure that they are in trust-worthy, capable hands, yet who nevertheless has no idea what will happen next.
The play succeeds thanks to a tight braid of deeply personal stories, universally relatable narratives and knife-sharp, comedic wit. The writer offers commentary on multiple social issues, using a range of performance styles, all the while managing a text that feels relevant, focused and one that steadily drives forward with assured momentum.
There is genuine darkness in I Kill Myself, yet the writer maintains a comforting presence, guiding the way by shining their light on the beauty, the wonder and even the sheer absurdity of the human experience.”
“the big bad” by Stephanie Leger
Juror Tia McLennan says: “In their poem “Elapses,” the author writes:
“Gin and tonic in a snow globe —
A portrait of my body at noon, a viscous cut up
swell of here-ness…”
The poems in the The Big Bad radiate with this “here-ness”. I was drawn in by their startling, visceral, and sensual language and imagery. The writing swoops, dives, and crackles. What is conveyed is, in turns, urgent, skeptical, and world-weary, and awash in wry humour. Rooted in the here and now through a queer lens, the author grapples with the collision of environmental, human, and personal crisis. Though grounded in the present, and often dwelling in the corporeal, the poems in this collection also excavate the past and take pleasure leaping into philosophy, physics, science-fiction, and the surreal.
The Big Bad is a promising manuscript that reflects to us our present world. Never shying away from life’s blemishes or human failings, and getting its hands dirty, this is a collection that still holds tight to wonder and enchantment and shows us what it means to be joyfully, stubbornly, and unapologetically alive.”
“Those Who Stay” by Sabrina Pinksen
Juror Trudy Morgan-Cole says: “I think about what makes a person a lot” the narrator says on the first page of Those Who Stay. This is a novel about “what makes a person,” as well as what makes a family and a community.
Those Who Stay successfully strikes a balance: it is a tightly focused story about intimate, deeply personal emotions and relationships, while also being an expansive novel shifting between multiple time periods and points of view. The writing is fresh and vivid, with a compelling voice firmly grounded in story, character, and place.
A sudden tragedy is the catalyst for this exploration of grief, identity, and belonging. When Jeannine receives news of a death in the family, her vacation is cut short – but the disruption is only beginning. Thrown into close contact with immediate and extended family as they navigate this loss, Jeannine confronts questions about who she is in relation to, and apart from, these people. The novel explores how the idea of “home” shapes identity for members of a Newfoundland family divided, as so many are, between those who go away and those who stay.
Those Who Stay is an ambitious and accomplished novel; reading it is a rich and rewarding experience.”
Join us in Mount Pearl for the
2024 Fresh Fish Awards Ceremony!
The Shortlist Readings and Winner Announcement will take place on Wednesday, June 12, 2024 at 7 p.m. NST at the Admiralty House Communications Museum Annex, located in Mount Pearl at 365 Old Placentia Road.
RSVP to our Facebook event by clicking here.
Light refreshments will be provided.
Please note: this venue is accessible, with accessible parking, sidewalks, and automatic doors. There is also a wheelchair-accessible washroom on site.
See you on June 12 for shortlist readings and the highly anticipated winner announcement!
Longlist Announcement: NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2024
(May 27, 2024) – WritersNL is excited to announce the longlist finalists for one of the country’s most lucrative literary awards for unpublished writers, the Fresh Fish Award, presented bi-annually by NLCU.
The Award, established by the O’Dea family in 2006 and sponsored by NLCU, serves as an incentive for emerging writers in the province by providing financial support, recognition, and professional editing services for a book-length manuscript in any genre.
The winning author will receive a cash prize of $5,200 and $1,000 towards professional editing services for the winning manuscript. Each runner-up will each receive $1,200.
Our 2024 longlist finalists (listed alphabetically by last name) are:
I Kill Myself – A Live Comedy Show – Veronica Dymond
the big bad – Stephanie Leger
Green – Paul Moorehead
Those Who Stay – Sabrina Pinksen
The Swamp Hag of Hurricane Island and Other Stories – Kira Sheppard
The Clearing – E. Catherine Daley
WritersNL sends a heartfelt congratulations to these wonderful emerging writers, and we thank everyone who submitted their works for this year’s prize.
We would also like to thank our talented and knowledgeable jury – choosing one winner out of so many fantastic submissions is no easy feat!
Jurors Tia McLennan, Joshua Goudie and Trudy Morgan-Cole “had plenty of overlap in our favourites,” the jury told WritersNL.
“We were all impressed by the strength of so many of the entries,” juror Tia McLennan added.
WritersNL also wishes to send thanks to NLCU for their continued support with this award.
The shortlist for the 2024 NLCU Fresh Fish Award will be announced on June 3, 2024.
For any questions or media inquiries, please contact Executive Director Jen Winsor at director@writersnl.ca or 709-739-5215.
Call for Submissions: NLCU’s Fresh Fish Award 2024
(February 21, 2024 – St. John’s, NL) – WritersNL is pleased to announce the call for submissions for one of the country’s most lucrative literary awards for unpublished writers: the NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers.
The biennial award was established by author Brian O’Dea in 2006 and is now generously sponsored by NLCU.
The Fresh Fish Award is intended to incentivize emerging writers in the province by providing them with financial support, recognition, and professional editing services for a book-length manuscript in any genre.
The winning author will receive a cash prize of $5,200; $1,000 towards professional editing services for the winning manuscript. The runners-up will each receive $1,200.
NLCU Chief Executive Officer, Glenn Bolger, commented on the significance of the award to emerging writers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“The NLCU Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers has become a momentous stepping-stone for launching the literacy careers of talented up-and-coming local writers. Of the 35 writers who have won or been runner-up for this award over the years, 24 of them have gone on to successfully publish their works. As an arts patron and this award’s sponsor since 2011, NLCU is honoured to help provide a supportive platform for emerging artists.”
WritersNL has offered this emerging writers program since 2006, to recognize and support budding authors.
View a complete list of eligibility rules and submission guidelines below.
Submission deadline: April 1, 2024 at 5 p.m. NST
Media Contact:
Jen Winsor, Executive Director
Email: director@writersnl.ca
ELIGIBILITY RULES
Writers must be current members of WritersNL with a completed, unpublished manuscript in any genre. Writers may join WritersNL at the time of submission.
Writers must have lived in Newfoundland and Labrador for the 12 months immediately prior to the call for submissions OR must have lived in Newfoundland and Labrador in any combination of 36 of the last 60 months. Deceased writers are not eligible.
Writers are permitted to submit only one entry per year, in any genre.
Manuscripts must be single-authored.
Manuscripts must be in English.
Manuscripts that contain other media in addition to writing (e.g., photos, CDs, graphics, illustrations) are eligible. However, the award will be given only to the author of the manuscript’s text and only for the writing.
Collected or selected works (e.g., poems, short stories) by a single author are eligible provided at least 50% of the text is previously unpublished material.
Manuscripts containing material not written by the author (e.g., letters, diaries, memoirs, blogs, oral histories, selected writings) are eligible provided at least 50% of the text is written by the author (e.g., introduction, exposition, commentary, reporting, narrative, footnotes, epilogue).
The following are not eligible for the Fresh Fish Award: anthologies with more than one author, audiobooks, textbooks, self-help or how-to books, manuals or guidebooks on any subject (e.g., travel, nature, cookbook), dictionaries, encyclopedias.
Writers with a published book in any genre on any platform or in any media, or a book accepted for publication at the time of submission, are NOT eligible.
The Fresh Fish Award will accept a manuscript that has been submitted once before. Entry forms for resubmitted manuscripts must identify the manuscript as such and must indicate the year it was first entered. Manuscripts submitted more than twice will not be accepted.
ASSESSMENT PROCESS
Assessment of all eligible submissions to the Fresh Fish Award will be adjudicated by an independent jury recruited and facilitated by WritersNL.
The independent jury will submit a shortlist of three books and a winning book from that shortlist.
The paramount consideration is excellence in writing. Jurors should reflect on creativity, wordsmithery, and originality.
A juror must disclose any conflict of interest. WritersNL defines conflict of interest in terms of whether a juror stands to gain any financial benefit through association with a submitted manuscript, or if the juror stands to gain from any moral or intellectual rights, or if the juror has a significant personal relationship with the author of a submitted manuscript. If there is a conflict of interest the juror will be asked to step aside.
The decisions made by the Fresh Fish Award jury are final.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Each manuscript must be typed in 12 point font and double-spaced. Handwritten manuscripts will NOT be accepted. (Poetry manuscripts do not have to comply with the double-space requirement.) Submissions can be sent as a PDF or a Microsoft Word document is preferred.
Pages must be numbered. The title should appear on every page.
All Fresh Fish submissions must be anonymous — Please do not include your name anywhere in your submission.
Entries that do not adhere to these guidelines will be disqualified.
Submission deadline: April 1, 2024 at 5 p.m. NST
Send your submissions to info@writersnl.ca
2024 Fresh Fish Timeline
• Fresh Fish Call for Submissions Announced – February 21, 2024
• Deadline for Fresh Fish Submissions – April 1, 2024
• Longlist Announcement – May 27, 2024
• Shortlist Announcement – June 3, 2024
• Shortlist Readings and Winner Announcement – June 12, 2024
Click here to read about the history of the Fresh Fish Award
Click here to view past Fresh Fish Winners