Julie Curwin of Canada claims first prize of £2,000 in the 2008 Commonwealth Short Story Competition.
Her story 'World Backwards' was selected as the best story from the Caribbean and Canada region of the Commonwealth and as the overall winning story of the competition. She triumphed over more than 1,700 entries.
Julie received her prize of £2,000 from 2008 Commonwealth Writers' Prize regional winner Sade Adeniran in an event attended by the Commonwealth Secretary General at the Commonwealth Foundation's Marlborough House headquarters on 13 November 2008. She follows in the footsteps of the 2006 winner of the prize, Canadian Erin Soros.
Julie comes from New Brunswick in Canada and now lives with her husband in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. A psychiatrist by profession, she has a BA in philosophy and political science from Mount Allison University, a BSc and MD from Dalhousie University, and a diploma in post-graduate medicine (psychiatry) from Queen's University.
Julie began writing only two years ago, but 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.
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 United Kingdom), who each received £500. Tania Hersham and a number of highly commended writers based in the UK also received their prizes at Marlborough House, and ceremonies were also held in other Commonwealth countries, including Australia, India and South Africa.
Highly commended winners come from Nigeria, South Africa, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.
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 as part of its Culture Programme and is managed by the Foundation and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. The Competition aims to increase understanding and appreciation of Commonwealth cultures and to promote rising literary talents. The winning stories have been recorded on CD and distributed to broadcasting stations around the Commonwealth. The CDs are also 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.