The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize is awarded in honour of acclaimed Calgary writer W.O. Mitchell and recognizes literary achievement by Calgary authors. Established in 1996, the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize is coordinated through a partnership between The City of Calgary and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta, which administers the award as part of the Alberta Literary Competitions.
The Season of Fury and Wonder, in Sharon Butala’s world, is the old age of women. These stories present the lives of old women – women of experience, who’ve seen much of life, who’ve tasted its sweetness and its bitterness, and offer wisdom and irony, exploring quotidien concerns and ultimate questions. The stories reflect today’s crones, who understand that they have inescapably been created by their pasts. Another layer underpins these stories. Not content to rest on her considerable literary laurels, Sharon Butala continues to push the boundaries of her art. The stories in Season of Fury and Wonder are all responses to classic works of literature that she has encountered and admired. In their various ways, these stories are inspired by, and tributes to, works by Raymond Carver, Willa Cather, James Joyce, Shirley Jackson, Flannery O’Conner, John Cheever, Alan Sillitoe, Ernest Hemmingway, Tim O’Brien, Edgar Allan Poe, and Anton Checkov.
Sharon Butala is the author of nineteen books of fiction and nonfiction, numerous essays and articles, some poetry and five produced plays. She published her first novel in 1984, Country of the Heart, which was nominated for the Books in Canada First Novel Award, followed closely by a collection of short stories, Queen of the Headaches. Sharon’s books have been on the Canadian bestseller lists, including her memoir, The Perfection of the Morning, which reached #1 in July 1994 and remained on the bestseller list for longer than a year. Sharon is the recipient of numerous awards and honours. She is represented by Marilyn Biderman.
To see the full list of prize winners, please visit: https://newsroom.calgary.ca/recognizing-outstanding-achievements-by-calgarians–the-calgary-awards/