Congratulations to Sigal Samuel and Gary Barwin whose books, OSNAT AND HER DOVE (Levine Querido) and NOTHING THE SAME, EVERYTHING HAUNTED: THE BALLAD OF MOTL THE COWBOY (Random House Canada) have won 2021 Canadian Jewish Literary Awards! The Canadian Jewish Literary Awards recognizes the finest books with Jewish themes and subjects by Canadian authors in a variety of genres. The Awards ceremony will be held online Oct. 17.
OSNAT AND HER DOVE by Sigal Samuel won in the Children and Youth category and tells the story of the first female rabbi. Sigal Samuel is an award-winning novelist and journalist. Currently a Staff Writer at Vox, she previously worked as Religion Editor at The Atlantic, Opinion Editor at the Forward, and Associate Editor at the Daily Beast. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.The Mystics of Mile End, her debut novel, was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award and won the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and the Alberta Book Publishing Award. Sigal hails from an Iraqi Jewish family in Montreal, and now lives in Washington, DC. Sigal is represented by Samantha Haywood.
NOTHING THE SAME, EVERYTHING HAUNTED: THE BALLAD OF MOTL THE COWBOY by Gary Barwin, about a middle-aged Jewish man who fantasizes about being a cowboy goes on an eccentric quest across Europe after the 1941 Nazi invasion of Lithuania, has won in the Fiction category. Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist and the author of twenty-three books of poetry, fiction and books for children. His recent national bestselling novel, Yiddish for Pirates, won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour as well as the Canadian Jewish Literary Award and the Hamilton Literary Award. It was also a finalist for both the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction. For It Is a Pleasure and a Surprise to Breathe: New and Selected Poems was also recently published to much acclaim. A PhD in music composition, Barwin has taught creative writing at a number of colleges and universities. His prose and poetry has been published in hundreds of magazine and journals internationally–from Reader’s Digest to Granta and the Walrus. Born in Northern Ireland to South African parents of Ashkenazi descent, Barwin lives in Hamilton, Ontario. Gary is represented by Samantha Haywood.
To see the full list of winners, please visit: https://cjlawards.ca/