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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
13 November 2008 Julie Curwin wins Commonwealth Writing Prize
A New Brunswick native, now living in Cape Breton, Julie Curwin is a psychiatrist during the day, a long distance tri-athlete and a midnight-oil burning writer. For further information, please see the CBA press materials below:
PRESS RELEASE Thursday, November 13 JULIE CURWIN OF CANADA WINS COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2008 Her story 'World Backwards' was selected as the best story from the Caribbean and Canada region of the Commonwealth and as the winning story of the competition from more than 1700 entries. Julie is from New Brunswick in Canada and now lives with her husband in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. A psychiatrist by profession she has a B.A. in philosophy and political science from Mount Allison University, a B.Sc. and M.D. from Dalhousie University, and a diploma in post-graduate medicine (psychiatry) from Queen’s University. Despite her busy profession Julie has found time to write and has already won recognition for her fiction. In 2007 her story “The Other Side of the Window” was selected as a finalist in The Writer’s Union of Canada’s Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers. She is currently working on a collection of short stories with medical themes. Prior to taking up writing, Julie had a ten year career as a professional long-distance triathlete, and was a member of Canada’s elite national team. The other winners in the 2008 Commonwealth Short Story Competition include regional winners from the Pacific (Jennifer Mills from Australia), Africa (Taddeo Bwambale Nyondo from Uganda) Asia (Salil Chaturvedi from India) and Europe (Tania Hershman from the UK). Highly commended winners come from Nigeria, South Africa, Antigua, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Sri Lanka and the UK. The judges were: writer Jaishree Mishra, author of Ancient Promises, Accidents like Love and Marriage and Afterwards, broadcaster Amber Barnfather, and Nigerian-born author and playwright Biyi Bandele. The Commonwealth Short Story Competition began in 1996. It is funded by the Commonwealth Foundation and administered by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. The winning stories have been recorded on CD and distributed to broadcasting stations around the Commonwealth. The CDs are available for sale from the CBA website www.cba.org.uk For more information or to receive a copy of the 2008-9 Commonwealth Short Story CD, please contact cba@cba.org.uk or phone + 44 (0) 20 7583 5550 or fax +44 (0) 20 7583 5549. Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, 17 Fleet Street, London EC4Y 1AA 2008 Short Story Competition Winners Name: Julie Curwin Name: Salil Chaturvedi Name: Tania Hershman Name: Jennifer Mills Name: Taddeo Bwambale Nyondo Name: Rachna Bisht-Rawat Name: Anjali Purohit Name: Shahana Chaudhury Name: Arpan Banerjee Name: Vikram Kapur Name: Neluka Silva Name: Akinwumi Akinwale Name: Uche Peter Umez Name: Christo Snyman Name: Adrienne M Frater Name: Peter Court Name: Sylvie Haisman Name: Helen Von Randow Name: Barry Rosenberg Name: Claire Brown Name: Judy Hanel Name: David Hughes Name: Verity Sharp Name: Hazra C. Medica Name: Charles M. Anderson Name: Lisa-Anne Julien |
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Cape Breton writer Julie Curwin has won the 2008 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Administered by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association on behalf of the Commonwealth Foundation since 1996, the Competition exists to increase understanding between and appreciation of different Commonwealth cultures, to showcase the rich diversity of the Commonwealth and to support rising literary talents. Each year the competition identifies 25 outstanding short stories, which are recorded and broadcast around the Commonwealth. The overall winner of the competition receives ₤2,000. The prize was awarded at a ceremony in London, England on Thursday, November 13, 2008.