Stephen Weir articles, editorials and popular social media weir postings

  Art Bites: Cultural News That Arrived On My Virtual Desk This Week  By Stephen Weir Cian Knights Joins the AGO On Wednesday morning Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario announced that  Cian Knights  has joined the gallery as their first Manager  of Diversity and Inclusion. She leaves the  Toronto based Centre for Young Black Professionals to take on this new role at the AGO. In announcing her appointment the Gallery said that following  “the Black Lives Matter protests sparked by George Floyd's death the AGO took heed to the urgent call to accelerate our efforts and take a more critical eye towards (diversity). How do we, as a leading Canadian museum, pledge to accurately reflect the diversity of our community through our internal culture, exhibitions, collections and programming?”  “I am looking forward to taking on this new role to lead and partner in efforts of equitable transformation at the AGO,” Knights said. “This is going to be a journey of introspection and accountability in

Stories from Little Jamaica earn Toronto writer a place  on Kobo’s Emerging Writer Prize Short List Another week, another Caribbean Canadian author has been nominated for a top national literary prize. Zalika Reid-Benta,  a Toronto-based Jamaican Canadian novelist has made the longlist for the Sixth Annual Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. She is in the running for the $10,000 prize for literary fiction for her book  Frying Plantain  was published last year and nominated for the 2019 Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious award.    Since then it has won the 2019 Byblacks People’s Choice Awards for Best Author and has been nominated for the Ontario Library Association’s 2020 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award and The Canadian Writers’ Union Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Rakuten Kobo, the Toronto based global eBook and audiobook online seller will be announcing the winners of the Emerging Writer Prize in June. It recognizes exceptional books written by first-time

Three of Twelve books picked for the Giller Longlist are by Caribbean Canadian authors.  by Stephen WEIR Ian Williams A dozen Canadian authors were just named to the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist and three of them are Caribbean-Canadian!  The Scotiabank Giller Prize, one of the richest book awards in the country gives $100,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English. Giller finalists will receive $10,000 each. The Scotiabank Giller Prize's annual celebration of Canadian literary talent began on Tuesday morning with the announcement of this year's longlist. Last year’s winner, Esi Edugyan (Washington Black) hosted the event and unveiled the nominees. Esi - 2018 The three Caribbean Canadian authors who made this list are  André Alexis  for his novel  Days by Moonlight ;  Ian Williams  for his novel   Reproduction  and  Zalika Reid-Benta  for her short story collection  Frying Plantain . “