Arts Hamilton

by | Nov 13, 2012 | Sylvia McNicoll

Last night, November 12, was a celebration of literary arts in the Hamilton community. Lots of prizes are given out and my friends Marsha Skrypuch, Estelle Salata and Gary Barwin were celebrated.  The crazy thing about awards is that such diverse books end up in the same category.  So I think Tori’s Happy Journal by Estelle Salata should win a prize for the best book set in the Lake Erie cottage country with windsurfing in it.  Last Airlift by Marsha Skrypuch should win for best nonfiction on escaping Vietnam and Gary Barwin’s poetry books should win for…I’m not sure.  But you get what I mean.  We pit apples against grapes when readers love all kinds of fruits er books.  Still…  These awards offer a lovely get together for people who usually work alone in a messy office. 

The strange cooincidence is that instead of working on rewrites I declared Monday a reading day and read True Blue by Deborah Ellis.  I bought the book at Telling Tales in September and just got to reading it yesterday.  It was a compelling dark read about an uncomfortable character who does not stand up for a friend.  True Blue won in the Young Adult Category.  If only Deborah could have been there to hear Aquarius Theatre’s creative director Ron Ulrich read the first chapter.