The Southern Alberta Art Gallery is pleased to announce the 9th annual SAAG Writing Prize. This writing competition encourages and recognizes the work of emerging arts writers in Alberta and BIPOC+ writers within Canada.
This year, we are honored to introduce the Aruna D’Souza Arts Writing Prize [BIPOC+ Arts Writing]. The award is named after Aruna D'Souza who will also be a guest juror. D'Souza writes about race in modern and contemporary art, intersectional feminisms, and how museums shape our views of each other and the world. Her most recent book, Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited), was named one of the best art books of 2018 by the New York Times. She is currently editing two forthcoming volumes, Making It Modern: A Linda Nochlin Reader, and Lorraine O’Grady: Writing in Space 1973-2018, and is co-curator of the upcoming retrospective of Lorraine O’Grady’s work, Both/And, which will open in March 2021 at the Brooklyn Museum.
Applicants are invited to submit to the following categories:
SAAG Arts Writing Prize [Arts Writing]
Long form text, critical essay, and exhibition review.
Alberta-based arts writers are eligible for this category.
SAAG Arts Writing Prize [Poetry & Prose]
Long form text, fiction, non-fiction. poetry, and experimental writing.
Alberta-based arts writers are eligible for this category.
Aruna D’Souza Arts Writing Prize [BIPOC+ Arts Writing]
Open format category of arts writing in any style, long or short form awarded to an author who self-identifies as Black, Indigenous, or as a Person of Colour.
Canadian (citizen or resident) arts writers are eligible for this category.
PRIZES
The prizes for each writing prize category are:
SAAG Arts Writing Prize [Arts Writing]: $250 prize & writing published online in Galleries West
SAAG Arts Writing Prize [Poetry & Prose]: $250 prize & Gushul Writers Cottage residency for a Southern Alberta arts writer for the month of November, 2020
Aruna D’Souza Arts Writing Prize [BIPOC+ Arts Writing]: $1000 prize & writing published online with Canadian Art
All submissions will be included in our SAAG Arts Writing Prize Reader 2020, printed in-house at SAAG in our Publication Studio.
All participants are invited to our Writing Prize Reception | Thursday, October 1, 2020 | 6-8 PM
ELIGIBILITY
At the time of entry, writers must be at least 18 years of age and have fewer than five pieces of writing published in a nationally distributed magazine.. Submissions to [Poetry & Prose] and [Arts Writing] must be from Alberta to be eligible. The Aruna D’Souza Arts Writing Prize [BIPOC+ Arts Writing] is open to all of Canada. Students and emerging writers are encouraged to participate. All applicants are encouraged to include a current CV and short biography. Writing submissions must not have been previously published elsewhere.
DEADLINE
Send us your submissions by Sunday, September 13, 2020 to Courtney Faulkner | Public Engagement & Event Coordinator [Adult] | cfaulkner@saag.ca
JURORS
Aruna D’Souza, Hali HeavyShield, Kristy Trinier, Adam Whitford
SPONSORS
Thank you for donor support from Dr Carol Williams, Professor, Department of Women & Gender Studies and Department of History & Director, Centre for Oral History & Tradition (COHT).
Photo: Dana Hoey
ABOUT ARUNA D'SOUZA
Aruna D'Souza writes about modern and contemporary art; intersectional feminisms and other forms of politics; and how museums shape our views of each other and the world. Her most recent book, Whitewalling: Art, Race, and Protest in 3 Acts (Badlands Unlimited), was named one of the best art books of 2018 by the New York Times. Her work appears regularly in 4Columns.org, where she is a member of the editorial advisory board, and has also been published in The Wall Street Journal, CNN.com, Art News, Garage, Bookforum, Momus, Art in America, and Art Practical, among other places.
She is currently editing two forthcoming volumes, Making It Modern: A Linda Nochlin Reader, and Lorraine O’Grady: Writing in Space 1973-2018, and is co-curator of the upcoming retrospective of Lorraine O’Grady’s work, Both/And, which will open in March 2021 at the Brooklyn Museum.
The Aruna D’Souza Arts Writing Prize is presented in partnership with
