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BMO supports Black Voices Prize

The Honorable Don Oliver (right) receives BMO’s investment in the Black Voices Prize from Marc Champoux (left), Regional President of BMO. (Photo courtesy of Nicola Davison)

MEDIA RELEASE 

HALIFAX, May 26, 2023 – BMO is investing $100,000 in the Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize, to support a new $5,000 annual prize to be awarded to emerging Black Nova Scotian writers. The prize will be administered by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.

The Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize will support and encourage the creation of literary work by Black writers from Atlantic Canada whose writing shows promise and career-advancing merit. The prize will amplify the voices of Black writers who are historically marginalized by systemic inequality, including within the publishing world.

“I wanted to create something that could be an incentive to those Black writers who have the potential and talent to rank among tomorrow’s leading writers,” says Senator Oliver, who has also contributed personally to the prize endowment. “It is my hope that the prize will encourage young Black writers to find their voices and share their stories with the world.”

In creating the prize, Senator Oliver wanted the prize money to be substantial. The $5,000 prize money will finance the time, space, and professional development required to write, revise and edit, and/or submit work for publication.

“BMO is proud to join Senator Oliver, an author himself and an inspiration to so many of us in Atlantic Canada, in supporting a prize so-well aligned with our bank’s Purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life”, said Marc Champoux, Regional President, BMO Private Wealth, Atlantic. “This is all about expanding access to opportunity and progress for Black writers, while lifting up valuable and unique contributions to Atlantic Canada’s rich literary culture.”

Applications for the inaugural prize will be accepted through the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia website and awarded by the end of the year.

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The Senator Don Oliver Black Voices Prize was officially launched on Friday, May 26, at BMO Financial Group’s Atlantic Regional Headquarters (Nova Centre, Halifax). (Photos courtesy of Nicola Davison.)

Throughout his life, The Honorable Dr. Don Oliver, CM, ONS, KC, has been a tireless spokesman for diversity, pluralism, fairness, and equality, for which he was awarded five honorary doctorate degrees from Canadian universities. Now retired, he has been many things during his career including successful businessman, lawyer, professor of law, farmer, and Senator. The first Black man appointed to the Senate of Canada, he served with distinction from 1990 to 2013. He resides at his beloved farm in Pleasant River, Queens Co., NS, reading, writing and meeting with friends. His memoir, A Matter of Equality: The Life’s Work of Senator Don Oliver, was published in 2021 by Nimbus Publishing.

BMO Financial Group is the eighth largest bank in North America by assets, with total assets of $1.15 trillion as of January 31, 2023. Serving customers for 200 years and counting, BMO is a diverse team of highly engaged employees providing a broad range of personal and commercial banking, wealth management, global markets and investment banking products and services to 12 million customers across Canada, the United States, and in select markets globally. Driven by a single purpose, to Boldly Grow the Good in business and life, BMO is committed to driving positive change in the world, and making progress for a thriving economy, sustainable future and more inclusive society.

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia is a nonprofit charity founded on the collaborative philosophy of “writers helping writers.” The WFNS has an annual membership of 700 writers at all career stages, who are engaged in a diverse range of forms, genres, and writing practices.

 

For more information, please contact:

Marilyn Smulders, Executive Director, Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, 902-423-8116, director@writers.ns.ca

Hannah Webster, BMO Media Relations, 416-881-9532, hannah.webster@bmo.com

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Experience Levels

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) uses the following terms to describe writers’ experience levels:

  • New writers: those with less than two years’ creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
  • Emerging writers: those with more than two years’ creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
  • Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
  • Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
  • Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

Please keep in mind that each form of creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry, writing for children and young adults, and others) provides you with a unique set of experiences and skills, so you might consider yourself an ‘established author’ in one form but a ‘new writer’ in another.

The “Recommended experience level” section of each workshop description refers to the above definitions. A workshop’s participants should usually have similar levels of creative writing and / or publication experience. This ensures that each participant gets value from the workshop⁠ and is presented with information, strategies, and skills that suit their career stage. 

For “intensive” and “masterclass” workshops, which provide more opportunities for peer-to-peer feedback, the recommended experience level should be followed closely.

For all other workshops, the recommended experience level is just that—a recommendation—and we encourage potential participants to follow their own judgment when registering.

If you’re uncertain of your experience level with regard to any particular workshop, please feel free to contact us at communications@writers.ns.ca