Deadline: October 1, 2024
The Writers’ Guild of Alberta is calling all readers and writers to join our awards juries this season. This is an opportunity to be “in the room” when the 2025 finalists and winners are chosen. The awards season is an important time on the literary calendar.
In 2025, the WGA will present awards in nine categories, plus the city book prizes. We could not do this without the hard work and deliberation of our jurors.
We expect jurors to be professional in their communications with other jurors while focusing on the literary merits of each piece.
You may make a good juror candidate if:
- You are prepared and qualified to adjudicate literary merit;
- You are fair and judicious and can identify conflicts of interest;
- You love to read and can read a lot of material in a short period of time;
- You work well with others & have strong communication skills.
We have openings on the juries for:
- Fiction and Nonfiction Books
- Poetry Book
- Short Story
- Short Nonfiction
- Unpublished Essay
- Children’s Picture Book
- Plays
- City Book Prizes
- Memoir
All jurors are paid an honorarium for their help with this process. All materials will be received by mid-January and final decisions must be made by March 31.
We will only be contacting those who have been selected to serve on juries.
The WGA is committed to upholding the values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility in our programs, services, and operations. We seek jurors who will work respectfully and constructively with differences and we actively encourage applications from members of groups experiencing barriers to equity, including Indigenous people, ethnic and religious groups that commonly experience discrimination, people with disabilities, people who identify as women, and people of marginalized sexual orientations or gender identities.
Conflict of interest:
- A juror may not serve if they are related by family or marriage to any of the people submitting work in that category.
- A juror also may not serve if he or she has had professional involvement with the submitted work (e.g. edited it, designed it, or worked for the press that published it).
Jurors will be asked about conflicts of interest, but may not know all the works submitted until they receive them, in which case they will immediately advise the WGA representative. The Executive Director of the WGA will be the final arbiter with respect to if a conflict exists that will require removal of the juror.