Leah Mol has been shortlisted for the 2020 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award in the category of short fiction for her story, “Six Things My Father Taught Me About Bears.” Established in memory of writer Bronwen Wallace, this award is for young developing writers of poetry and short fiction below the age of 35 who have published poetry or prose in a literary magazine or anthology, but have not yet been published in book form. The 2020 winners will be announced October 21 at the Digital Writer’s Trust Awards.
The jury for the award had this to say about this remarkable story:
“’Six Things My Father Taught Me About Bears’ features a child narrator as she describes life with her single father and the meaning of family. Leah Mol’s deceptively simple sentences brim with meaning and tenderness and brilliantly capture a voice caught in that fleeting moment between childhood and adolescence with great empathy. This is a deeply moving snapshot of a family whose conditions are unstable but their love resilient.”
Leah Mol is a writer and editor from Southwestern Ontario. Her work won the 2018 CBC Short Story Prize. Leah holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University and an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Now based in Toronto, she lives with her partner and a very anxious cat. Leah is represented by Stephanie Sinclair.
See the full shortlist here: https://www.writerstrust.com/awards/rbc-bronwen-wallace-award-for-emerging-writers