The 3rd Annual Metcalf-Rooke Award

We have decided to present the 2007 Metcalf-Rooke Award to the work of Rebecca Rosenblum. Rebecca’s writing is daring, extraordinary, and proof of a sterling imagination. Her collection of short stories, Once, shows considerable vigour and originality. Rebecca has a striking ability to “see things new,” and she comes at these stories from a fresh, slanted, beguiling, unfamiliar angle. Many of these stories are wondrous. Thrilling, in fact. Rebecca’s strongest work invariably contains soul-awakening surprises that fill a reader with wonder. The best of her stories are, we think, rather brilliant.

-- John Metcalf & Leon Rooke

Rebecca Rosenblum completed her MA in English and Creative Writing at the University of Toronto in 2007. Her recent publications include Exile Quarterly, echolocation, The Danforth Review, The New Quarterly, Qwerty, and Journey Prize Stories 19. Rebecca lives in Toronto.

Rebecca will receive a $1500.00 prize, a publishing contract with Biblioasis (with Once set for Fall 2008 publication), a regional book tour (including an appearance at the Ottawa International Writer’s Festival), a leather bound copy of her book, and a special pre-publication profile in The New Quarterly.

The other shortlisted titles are: Grant Buday for his novel, Dragonflies; Bruce Johnson for his novel Firmament; and J.J. Steinfeld for his collection of short fiction, Contemplating Madnesses. Congratulations to all for their fine work.

The 2007 Metcalf-Rooke Award is co-sponsored by Steven Temple Books, The New Quarterly and Biblioasis.