St. John's, N.L. — Willow Kean of St. John’s was named the winner of the Percy Janes First Novel Award, along with $2,500, this past weekend at the 2018 Arts and Letters Awards Program awards ceremony.
Kean won for her manuscript Our Impossible Forever. It was the program’s top prize at the event, which was held at The Rooms.
In all, prizes totalling $43,000 were awarded in literary, music, visual arts and digital multimedia categories.
Thirty winning entries were submitted from youth in the junior division, while there were 31 winning submissions in the senior division.
A total of 423 entries were submitted for consideration under the 2018 Arts and Letters Program.
This year, the Arts and Letters Awards Program moved to digital delivery for the first time, improving efficiency and opening the program in future to a greater number of submissions from all areas of the province.
A detailed list of award recipients can be found at thewayforward.gov.nl.ca.
Works by the winners and selected entries in this year’s program can be viewed in a brief exhibition at The Rooms
"For 66 years, the Arts and Letters Awards program has celebrated the artistic expression of our province’s artists, both emerging and established …” said Min. Christopher Mitchelmore, the province’s minister of Tourism, Culture, Industry and Innovation.
“Congratulations to all this year’s winners and entrants and thank you for your continued contribution to the growth and evolution of Newfoundland and Labrador’s cultural landscape.”
