Press Release: September 15, 2001
B.C. Poet Wins Top Prize
The Arc Poetry Society’s Poem of the Year 2001 Contest has been won by Joelene Heathcote, a creative writing student at the University of British Columbia, it was announced today in Ottawa. Heathcote won $1,000 for her poem, “How the Dying Move to Water.” Maureen Scott Harris of Toronto, was awarded second prize, $750, for a poem entitled “The Drowned Boy” and Pamela Swanigan, of Vancouver, was third ($500) for “How to Win at Rummy.”
Final judge this year was poet and novelist Steven Heighton of Kingston, choosing from a shortlist obtained from approximately 900 submitted poems. This year’s contest was the sixth annual sponsored by Arc: Canada’s National Poetry Magazine. All winning poems are published in Arc 47 (Winter 2001) which has just been released and will be available in bookstores and on newsstands early in December.
Winning poet Heathcote also recently won This magazine’s Great Literary Hunt for both poetry and fiction, as well as The LaPointe Prize, sponsored by the Acorn-Livesay People’s Festival. Harris is the author of a book of poems, A Possible Landscape. Swanigan, a writer and editor, says that “How to Win at Rummy” is the first poem she ever submitted for publication.
Two honourable mention awards this year went to Chris Jennings, who currently lives in Toronto, and Susan Glickman, also of Toronto. Arc’s annual contest is one of the biggest in Canada, offering top prizes as well as publication for prize-winners and other finalists selected by the magazine’s editors. This year, these choices include the work of new as well as established poets: Stephanie Bolster of Montreal, Tim Bowling of Edmonton, Heather Ferguson of Ottawa, Neile Graham (a Canadian poet living in Seattle), Kate Hall of Montreal, and Alison Pick of Kitchener.
0 The Poem of the Year Contest is an annual event. Find out about contest guidelines and previous winners.
Arc 47, Winter 2001
