{"id":19835,"date":"2016-07-01T00:27:46","date_gmt":"2016-07-01T07:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=19835"},"modified":"2016-06-29T19:56:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T02:56:25","slug":"new-award-on-literary-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/07\/01\/new-award-on-literary-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"New award on literary scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>A new Canadian literary prize was announced recently \u2013 the Joan Betty Stuchner Oy Vey! Funniest Children\u2019s Book Award.<\/p>\n

\"photo
Joan Betty Stuchner\u2019s friends have created a children\u2019s book award in her memory. (photo by Tom Kavadias)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWith this award, we honor Joan Betty Stuchner\u2019s life-affirming humor and encourage other children\u2019s writers to laugh it up on the page the way she did,\u201d reads the award website. The $1,000 prize will be given out once every two years to a Canadian author and\/or illustrator who creates the most hilarious book for readers ages 12 and under.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel that Joan would have loved this prize that supports authors who make children laugh,\u201d said Cindy Heinrichs, one of the award committee members, in an interview with the Independent<\/em>. \u201cThe name of the award is probably the longest and funniest book award name in literary history. Joan would love it. She would laugh at it, if she were alive. I can almost hear her laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stuchner, one of the funniest authors of children\u2019s books in Canada, passed away unexpectedly in 2014. She was only 67 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met Joan in 2006,\u201d Heinrichs recalled. \u201cI edited one of her books, Honey Cake<\/em>, for Tradewind. I was a young editor then, and Joan was very supportive. She had a knack for making everyone she met feel like they were her friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did become friends. Later, when she was already sick, I helped her with the final edits for her two latest books, Bagels the Brave<\/em> and Bagels on Board<\/em> [both illustrated by Dave Whamond]. I wasn\u2019t working for her publisher then, I did it as a friend, because she was too ill to do it alone. It gave her a great deal of pleasure to complete these books and a great deal of satisfaction to know that they would find their way into the world. Both books were published posthumously by Orca Books.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"bookHeinrichs remembered how shocked all Stuchner\u2019s friends were by her passing. \u201cJoan was a wonderful friend, warm and generous. She loved children. She loved books. She was a little lady with a big personality and a great sense of humor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in England, Stuchner moved to Canada when she was 18. After graduating from the University of British Columbia, she worked as a library assistant, taught part-time, acted in community theatre and performed as a storyteller.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy life is full of books … and my house is like a mini library \u2013 despite the fact that I moved in 2009 and had to give away many of my books. Not an easy thing to do,\u201d Stuchner herself wrote in her bio.<\/p>\n

She always liked to write, particularly for children. Her stories and poetry were published in children\u2019s magazines before her first book, Peanut Butter Waltz<\/em>, illustrated by Diana Durrand, came out in 1990.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wanted to write full-time,\u201d said Heinrichs. \u201cAt 64, she retired to make that dream come true. Sadly, she died only three years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the funeral, several of Stuchner\u2019s friends, including Heinrichs, got together to reminisce and to talk about Stuchner\u2019s literary legacy, her funny and heartwarming children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized that there was no prize in Canada for humorous children\u2019s books. We thought, Joan would love such a prize, we should found one.\u201d<\/p>\n

They did. And, in honor their departed friend, they named the prize after her. The members of the award committee include Heinrichs, fellow writers Caroline Adderson and Silvana Goldemberg, and artist\/ illustrator Kathryn Shoemaker.<\/p>\n

\"book\u201cWe all met through CWILL BC \u2013 Children\u2019s Writers and Illustrators Society of B.C.,\u201d Heinrichs said. \u201cWhen we started with the prize, we didn\u2019t know what to do. Everything was a first for all of us, and everything was done by volunteers. There are no administrative fees. No paid staff. We asked people to help \u2013 to make a logo, to make a website, to help with fundraising, to donate books \u2013 and everyone jumped in. Orca and Tradewind donated books to raise the funds for the prize. Shar Levine is helping us with fundraising, too. She has so many amazing ideas, even though she is not a member of the committee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Submissions for the inaugural prize, which will be awarded in 2017, already have started pouring in, from publishers and writers organizations across Canada, although the committee decided not to accept submissions from self-published writers, at least for now. Heinrichs explained that decision: \u201cWhile there are wonderful examples of self-published books for children, many self-published books are in need of a thorough editorial process. Most book prizes don\u2019t accept them at this time, but that may change. Our prize is brand new and we are learning. We expect it will grow as we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

To learn more, visit joanbettystuchneraward.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Olga Livshin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer. She can be reached at olgagodim@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new Canadian literary prize was announced recently \u2013 the Joan Betty Stuchner Oy Vey! Funniest Children\u2019s Book Award. \u201cWith this award, we honor Joan Betty Stuchner\u2019s life-affirming humor and encourage other children\u2019s writers to laugh it up on the page the way she did,\u201d reads the award website. The $1,000 prize will be given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19838,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[2083,4946,2053],"class_list":["post-19835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","tag-award","tag-childrens-books","tag-joan-betty-stuchner"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}