We’re excited and honoured to announce the winners of the first-ever Jacob Zilber Prize for Short Fiction, as selected by Jess Taylor!
Grand Prize Winner
“The Boat, as it Happened” by Carol Matthews – Nanaimo, BC
Carol Matthews has worked as a social worker, community worker, and Dean of Human Services and Community Education at Malaspina University-College (now Vancouver Island University) between 1988 and 1999. In 1999 she was awarded the Association of Community Colleges National Award for Excellence in Leadership. She has a strong interest in the non-profit sector and in community leadership. In addition to teaching and consulting activities, she has served as a director on a number of local and provincial boards and committees. In 2008 Carol was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters Degree from Vancouver Island University (VIU). In 2012, was awarded the Order of B.C. in recognition of achievement and commitment to her local community, and In January of 2013, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
Carol’s short stories have appeared in a number of literary publications, including Room,The New Quarterly and Grain Magazine. She has frequently published reviews in Malahat and Event and has also published articles in several educational journals. Articles published in the Journal of Relational Child and Youth Care Practice were collected and published as The First Three Years of a Grandmother’s Life (2006). A collection of short fiction, Incidental Music was published by Oolichan Books (2007). Reflections on the C-Word: At the Centre of the Cancer Labyrinth, a cancer memoir, was published by Hedgerow Press (2007). Questions for Ariadne: The Labyrinth and the End of Times was published by Outlaw Editions (2011). Her book MInerva’s Owl: The Bereavement Phase of Marriage will be published by Oolichan Books in the fall of this year.She has also edited a collection of dog poetry entitled Victor’s Verses, poems channeled from her dog Victor to many well-known poets.
First Runner-Up
“Chez Madame” by Adrick Brock – Vancouver, BC
Adrick Brock’s fiction has appeared in The New Quarterly, EVENT, The Malahat Review, Riddle Fence, The Dalhousie Review and has been short- and long-listed for the CBC Short Story contest. His first published story, ‘Nina In The Body Of A Clown,’ won the 2014 Western Magazine Award for Fiction. He lives in Vancouver, and is at work on his first novel.
(Photo by Marcus Jolly)
Second Runner-Up
“The Water” by Christine Miscione – Hamilton, ON
Christine Miscione is a Canadian fiction writer. Her work has appeared in various literary journals such as This Magazine, Lemon Hound, and The Puritan. In 2012, her story “Skin, Just” won first place in the Gloria Vanderbilt/Exile Editions CVC Short Fiction Contest. In 2014, her debut short story collection, Auxiliary Skins, won the ReLit Award for short fiction. That same year her debut novel, Carafola, was shortlisted for the Hamilton Literary Awards. Christine is currently at work on a short fiction collection and a novel.
About Jess Taylor
Jess Taylor is a Toronto writer and poet. She founded The Emerging Writers Reading Series in 2012 and is the fiction editor of Little Brother Magazine. She’s released two chapbooks of poetry, And Then Everyone: Poems of the West End (Picture Window Press, 2014) and Never Stop (Anstruther Press, 2014). This October, her first collection of short stories, Pauls, was published by BookThug. The title story from the collection, “Paul,” received the 2013 Gold Fiction National Magazine Award. Jess is currently at work on a second collection, Just Pervs; a novel, Where Everything Glows; and continuation of her life poem, Never Stop.
(Photo by Angela Lewis)