The joy of not coming in second -- for once Final Edition

• Published in: Standard (St. Catherines)
• Main Author: Cox, Terrance
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: St. Catharines, Ont Torstar Syndication Services, a Division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited 15.11.2002
• Subjects: Rungeling, Dorothy
• ISSN: 0837-3434

How relieved I am that Richard B. Wright did not enter Clara Callan in the competition for this year's Niagara Book Prize. Given that the St. Catharines writer's novel has barely managed to win the Governor-General's Award, the Giller Prize, the Trillium Award -- and now is on the long list for the IMPAC Dublin Prize, richest literary award in the world, worth 100,000 euros -- here at home, he would certainly have garnered the sympathy vote. In all likelihood, the two subsequently shortlisted works, Dorothy Rungeling's memoir The Road to Home, and my book of poems, Radio & Other Miracles, would have been penalized as being unfair competition. Perhaps the fractiousness of this process stems from basic conflicts inherent to literary prizes, troubling though usually glossed over. Commerce versus art, say. No question that contests sell books. Yann Martel's recent Booker victory, for instance, meant that his UK publishers, printing 6,000 first-run copies of The Life of Pi, ran 77,000 in its post-award second outing. On a very different scale and level, I sold more books in a single sitting at last Friday's gala at Hernder's Winery than anywhere, any time.