Vine Awards Panel 1: WWII Fiction & Stories of Survival

The Koffler was delighted to present three virtual panels featuring shortlisted Vine Awards authors on November 16, 17 and 18, 2021.
Vine Awards Panel 1 features the 2021 Vine Awards shortlisted writers - Michelle Barker, Gordon Korman, and Carol Windley - in conversation with juror Naomi K. Lewis. Join us for an evening of enlightening conversation, as all three authors reflect on writing WWII fiction, stories of survival, and the coming-of-age genre.
MICHELLE BARKER is an author and editor who lives in Vancouver, B.C. Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in literary reviews around the world. Her novel, The House of One Thousand Eyes, has won numerous awards, including the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. Her newest novel My Long List of Impossible Things was named a Junior Library Guild gold standard selection. Michelle holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and works as a senior editor at the Darling Axe.
Barker's My Long List of Impossible Things (Annick Press) is shortlisted in the 2021 Vine Awards Young Adult/Children’s Literature category.
GORDON KORMAN is the #1 bestselling author of three books in The 39 Clues series as well as eight books in his Swindle series: Swindle, Zoobreak, Framed, Showoff, Hideout, Jackpot, Unleashed, and Jingle. His other books include This Can't Be Happening at Macdonald Hall! (published when he was 14); The Toilet Paper Tigers; Radio Fifth Grade; Slacker; Restart; Whatshisface; Level 13; the trilogies Island, Everest, Dive, Kidnapped, and Titanic; and the series The Hypnotists and On the Run. Gordon grew up in Thornhill, Ontario and he lives in New York with his family.
Gordon Korman, War Stories (Scholastic Canada) is shortlisted in the 2021 Vine Awards Young Adult/Children’s Literature category.
CAROL WINDLEY is the author of the novel Breathing Under Water and two story collections: the Scotiabank Giller Prize-finalist Home Schooling and Visible Light, which won the Bumbershoot/Weyerhaeuser Prize and was nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award. She lives with her husband on Vancouver Island.
Carol Windley, Midnight Train to Prague (HarperCollins Canada) is shortlisted in the 2021 Vine Awards Fiction category.
NAOMI K. LEWIS is a fiction and nonfiction writer, editor, and creative writing teacher in Calgary. She wrote the novel Cricket in a Fist (2008) and the story collection I Know Who You Remind Of (2012), and co-edited, with Rona Altrows, the anthology Shy (2013). Her journalism has been shortlisted for provincial and national magazine awards, and her 2019 memoir, Tiny Lights for Travellers, won the Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature for Nonfiction, Alberta's Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction, and the Pinsky Givon Prize for Nonfiction, a Western Canada Jewish Book Award. It was also a finalist for the Governor General's Award for Nonfiction and the W.O. Mitchell City of Calgary Book Award.
The Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature are made possible by a generous donation from the Lillian and Norman Glowinsky Family Foundation/
The 2021 Vine Awards programs are co-presented by the Miles Nadal JCC and the Centre for Contemporary Literature, Holy Blossom Temple. All 2021 Vine Awards shortlisted titles can be purchased from benmcnallybooks.com.