RBC Foundation and the RBC Taylor Prize
launch
RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Mentorship Program
The RBC Foundation and the RBC Taylor Prize are
launching the new RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Mentorship Program, a
professional development program designed to support the next generation of
Canadian writers on their career journeys. The program will be part of the RBC
Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Award, a distinction that is given annually to a
Canadian author whose work embodies the pursuit of excellence in literary
non-fiction.
The Mentorship program will be made available to five Canadian
non-fiction writers, who are selected in partnership with a national network of
university and college writing programs. These students will then be paired
with RBC Taylor Prize shortlisted authors, who will help support their career
development and growth.
Nadina Taylor, a trustee of the Charles Taylor Foundation, and
daughter of the late Charles Taylor, is one of the main champions of the
new program. "We've seen great successes with the RBC Taylor Prize
Emerging Writers Award and realized that perhaps a more dedicated focus on how
best to prepare these talented writers for the competitive world of writing and
publishing could be effective. As we've seen in all professions, the impact and
benefit of mentorship can be potent and mutually beneficial."
The five students selected will be required to have an existing
body of work and a non-fiction manuscript that is close to completion. As part
of the program, they will attend several meetings with their mentor and
participate in an intensive agenda of professional development seminars
focusing on the business of writing and publishing in Canada.
Students and mentors will connect several times prior to the RBC
Taylor Prize event. They will also have the unique opportunity to travel
to Toronto for the weekend of the RBC Taylor Prize awards (February
22-26, 2018). While in Toronto, they will meet with their mentors and be
part of several sessions on professional development with individuals from
Canadian cultural industries. In addition, students will accompany their
mentors to various events scheduled for the shortlisted authors, including the
IFOA/TPL roundtable and various media engagements.
"At RBC Wealth Management, we recognize the value of mentorship
and its importance to enhancing career development," said Vijay
Parmar, President of RBC PH&N Investment Counsel. "This award is an
important part of RBC's larger commitment to bridging the gap between emerging
and established artists – which will no doubt help the next generation of
writers."
At a gala luncheon on February 26, 2018, the members of
the inaugural RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Mentorship Program will be
introduced, and then the winner of this year's RBC Taylor Prize will be
announced.
2018 RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Mentorship Program
The five participants in this year's Mentorship Program are:
 |
| Christopher Brown |
Christopher Brown — University of Calgary
Born and raised on the Prairies, Brown is pursuing his PhD in
English Literature. His intimate family history, linked to the Canadian North,
has led to an interest in the spectre of the Indian Agent, the Hudson Bay
Company, the RCMP, and the impact and aftermath of the Residential School
system. His most recent writing can be found in The Feathertale Review and Road
Maps & Life Rafts Lit Magazine, and his current project seeks to
interrogate Indian Affairs archival documentation from the '50s and '60s
through the space of the lyric essay.
 |
| Michael Downing |
Antonio Michael Downing — University of Waterloo
Antonio Michael Downing grew up in southern Trinidad, Northern
Ontario, Brooklyn and Kitchener. He is now a musician, writer and
activist based in Toronto. His 2010 debut novel, Molasses, was published
to critical acclaim. His nonfiction manuscript, Buttahfly, is a memoir of
his obsession for radical identity transformations and how a tragic fire forced
him to invent his '"baddest, boldest self: John Orpheus".
 |
| Gena Ellet |
Gena Ellett — UBC
Ellett's writing has appeared across North America including Malahat
Review, Slice, Canthius, EVENT and SubTerrain. She won the 2015 EVENT
NonFiction Prize and was nominated for a 2016 National Magazine Award for
Personal Journalism. Her work-in-progress, The Backroads, is an essay
collection that explores the finite years of young-adulthood as characterised
by first encounters with death, loss, relationships, identity. She lives and
writes in Vancouver.
 |
| Stephanie Harrington |
Stephanie Harrington
University of Victoria
Harrington has worked as a journalist in Canada, Hong Kong and Australia,
and recently completed an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of
Victoria. Her manuscript in progress, Four Blows, explores the
effect of a violent crime from the perspective of the accused's family. The
incident landed her brother in prison and displaced her family, prompting them
to leave their home in Hamilton, ON. Her brother later successfully
appealed his conviction, pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was released.
She asks, "What do we do as a society with violent people?"
 |
| Martha Roberts |
Martha Roberts — Dalhousie (Kings)
Having grown up in Kingston, Roberts has an MA in sociology
from Queens, specializing in crime & research methodology. She now
lives in North Central Regina, which Maclean's labeled Canada's Worst
Neighbourhood in 2007. The article inspired her to undergo a sobering
re-examination of her home. Her manuscript, "Wounded" details the
historical and social forces that have shaped the neighbourhood, the
relationships she developed with 5 Indigenous residents whom she followed for
two years and ultimately, her understanding of herself as a non-Indigenous
Canadian.
