The WGA Golden Pen Award is presented to acknowledge the lifetime achievements of an outstanding Alberta writer. Past recipients are: Greg Hollingshead, Alice Major, George Melnyk, Fred Stenson, Aritha van Herk, Robert Kroetsch, Merna Summers, Myrna Kostash, Grant MacEwan, W.O. Mitchell, Rudy Wiebe, and Betty Jane Hegerat.

This year’s recipient is Candas Jane Dorsey.

Candas Jane Dorsey is known as a writer of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Ursula K. Le Guin has described Dorsey as, “brilliant as William Gibson, as complex as Gene Wolfe, with a humanity and passion all her own.”  Quill & Quire contributor Greg Boyd remarked that, “the best of her fictions are emotionally grounded in the Alberta landscape: its pure blue arch of sky is too expansive to enclose the imaginative spirit.”

Dorsey is the founding president of SF Canada, Canada’s National Association of Speculative Fiction Professionals. She is a founding partner of Wooden Door and Associates, a professional communications company. She co-founded the publishing company The Books Collective, which released more than one hundred titles in fourteen years. She has been an active member of the literary community and other arts communities in Alberta for more than 40 years. Her work as a creative writing teacher, writer in residence, and mentor has influenced many students and emerging writers. She has been a member of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta for many years and previously served on the organization’s Board of Directors.

Congratulations, Candas!

The Golden Pen Award is supported by Aritha van Herk