Tarr Award

2009 TARR AWARD WINNER

The Word Guild is pleased to announce that Ray Wiseman of Fergus, Ontario was awarded the twenty-first annual Leslie K. Tarr Award for outstanding career achievement.

The award was presented on Wednesday, June 17, during The Word Guild Awards Gala at the World Vision headquarters in Mississauga, Ontario.

The scope and quality of Ray Wiseman’s writing and his role as a mentor have made him an encouragement for many. Wiseman, who writes a weekly column for The Wellington Advertiser, has written a novel, seven non-fiction books, ten technical manuals and hundreds of newspaper columns. For 11 years he was a freelance columnist for the Guelph Mercury.

See the full news release here.

THE LESLIE K. TARR AWARD

Named in honour of its first recipient, the late Leslie K. Tarr -- a journalist, editor, and teacher -- the Leslie K. Tarr Award celebrates a major career contribution to Christian writing and publishing in Canada. Specifically, the award recognizes a Canadian citizen who affirms the Apostles' Creed and who has:

demonstrated excellence in his or her own writing;
contributed to the development of Christian writing and writers in Canada;
helped position the church in Canadian society, leading to better understanding of Christianity.

Candidates must meet all three of these criteria.

If you would like to nominate someone for this award, please send a letter indicating who you are nominating and giving details why/how you feel this person meets the requirements. Your letter should also include brief background information about yourself and your relationship, if any, to the person you are nominating. Feel free to enclose any supporting documentation, such as clippings, reviews, the nominee's CV, etc. Nominations are not restricted to members of The Word Guild.

Nominations may be submitted at any time for consideration for future awards. Send your nominations to: Tarr Award, The Word Guild, Box 487, Markham ON L3P 3R1.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Les Tarr, who died in 1995, was a pastor and journalist who taught and wrote for a wide variety of secular and Christian publications. He was one of the first editors of Faith Today magazine; was the Canadian correspondent for Christianity Today; was Canadian director of Decision magazine; taught at God Uses Ink conferences (now known as Write! Canada); was professor of homiletics and communications at Central Baptist Seminary. The Reverend Tarr was author of Shields of Canada (biography of Baptist preacher T.T. Shields); 250 articles in The Toronto Star; articles in United Church Observer, Moody, Fundamentalist Journal, Canadian Churchman, Quill & Quire, etc. Despite disability and many years of painful illness, Les Tarr was a much-published and respected writer who remains an inspiration to us all.

Previous Leslie K. Tarr Award winners include Canadian Christian writing pioneers whose careers and work influenced many, such as Grace Irwin of Toronto, whose novels and dramatized biographies include Andrew Covington, Least of All Saints, Servant of Slaves, The Seventh Earl; Margaret Epp of Waldheim, Sask., whose 39 books were written primarily for the children/young adult market; Margaret Clarkson of Toronto, writer of hymn lyrics, articles and books; novelist Janette Oke of Alberta, who invented the inspirational fiction genre in the 1970s and whose books have sold more than 11 million copies; poet Margaret Avison of Toronto, an Officer of the Order of Canada, two-time Governor General's Award winner and 2003 recipient of the $40,000 Griffin Poetry Prize for Concrete and Wild Carrot; mainstream faith and ethics journalist Bob Harvey of the Ottawa Citizen; and Christian community newspaper founder and journalist Lloyd Mackey of British Columbia.

The nineteenth annual Leslie K. Tarr Award winner was author Rudy Wiebe, an Officer of the Order of Canada, and winner of two Governor General’s Literary Awards for the novels The Temptations of Big Bear and A Discovery of Strangers. Wiebe won The Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize in 1998 for Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman, which he co-authored with Yvonne Johnson. His memoir, Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest (Knopf Canada), was a finalist for a Writers' Trust prize and won the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction in 2007.

The Tarr Award was created and administered from 1988 to 2001 by the God Uses Ink Christian Writers' Conference, which was sponsored by Faith Today magazine and its publisher, The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. Faith Today continued to sponsor the award until 2004.

The Word Guild assumed responsibility for administering the Tarr Award in 2002. The award was enhanced to augment the engraved plaque with a $500 cash prize beginning in 2004. The Tarr Award been sponsored since 2005 by Tyndale University College and Seminary, Toronto.

LESLIE K. TARR AWARD WINNERS

2008

Connie Brummel Crook, novelist, teacher

2007

Rudy Wiebe (b. 1934), novelist, nonfiction author & teacher

2006

Lloyd Mackey (b. 1939), journalist, author & publisher

2006

Bob Harvey,
journalist

2005

Margaret Avison (b. 1918 - d. July 31, 2007), poet

^{Photo by Sue Careless, 2003}

2003

Margaret A. Epp
(b. 1914 - d. Sept. 7, 2008), author

2004

Janette Oke (b. 1935), novelist

2002 Grace Irwin (b. 1907 - died September 16, 2008), teacher/author/minister

2001 Larry Matthews, editor/writer/consultant

2000 Doug Koop, editor/journalist

1999 Audrey Dorsch, editor/writer

1998 Jim Taylor, editor/author/publisher

1997 Hugh Cook, professor/author

1996 W. Harold Fuller, writer/author

1995 John White (b. 1924 - d. 2002), author

1994 Phyllis Mitchell, columnist/author

1993 Harold Jantz, founder/editor, ChristianWeek

1992 E. Margaret Clarkson (b. 1915 - d. March 17, 2008), poet/author/hymnwriter

1990 Maxine Hancock (b. 1942), professor/broadcaster/author

1989 John H. Redekop (b. 1932), professor/author

1988
Leslie K. Tarr (d. 1995),
writer/editor/author

Tarr Award Winners Grace Irwin, Margaret Epp and Margaret Clarkson pass away in 2008

Three Tarr Award winners passed away in 2008, all of whom were single women and pioneering Canadian Christian writers who lived to a great age.

Margaret Epp died at age 95 on September 7, 2008 in at the Mennonite Nursing Home in Rosthern, Saskatchewan. Margaret penned 39 books, mainly for children and young adults. Many dealt with Mennonite themes, including The Earth is Round.

Grace Irwin passed away in Toronto at age 101 on September 16, 2008, after a long, active and vibrant life, living her entire life in the same house in which she was born. She enjoyed a fulfilling career as a high school English and classics teacher at Humberside Collegiate. Her six published novels include: Least of All Saints, Andrew Connington and Contend with Horses; biographical fiction Servant of Slaves (life of John Newton) and The Seventh Earl (Lord Shaftesbury); the autobiographical Three Lives in Mine; and a manuscript written in 1927 that was published in 2003 titled Compensation.

Grace's nephew, John Irwin, is on the board of Christian Info Canada, the umbrella organization that encompasses The Word Guild.

Canadian author/poet/hymnwriter E. Margaret Clarkson died in Toronto on March 17, 2008 at age 93 after a long struggle with physical illness and a 15-year disablement by Alzheimer's. She had published many hymn lyrics, including "So Send I You," and 17 books, including So You're Single, Destined for Glory, All Nature Sings and A Singing Heart.

A "Service of Witness To the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and Those Who Belong to Him" was held on June 3, 2008 in the chapel at Tyndale University College & Seminary in Toronto. Approximately 70 people were present to honour Margaret's memory, including a number of academics and pastors. All the details of the service, which consisted of a series of scripture passages and six of Margaret's own hymns, were planned by Margaret in 1990. Anyone who knew her would not be surprised to learn that Margaret had timed it to last precisely one hour--and it did exactly that! Wendy Elaine Nelles presented copies of Hot Apple Cider to Jesse, Margaret's 95-year-old sister, and to Kathy Clulow, Margaret's niece.

Margaret Clarkson, Margaret Epp and Grace Irwin are all paid tribute as trail-blazing Canadian Christian authors in Hot Apple Cider's introduction, along with Les Tarr, Margaret Avison, Rudy Wiebe, Janette Oke and Maxine Hancock.

Tarr Award winner Margaret Avison passes away in 2007

Margaret Avison, to whom The Word Guild presented the Leslie K. Tarr Award in 2005 for outstanding contribution to Christian writing and publishing in Canada, passed away on July 31, 2007, in her 90th year. Avison twice won the Governor General's Award for poetry, and was an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2003, at the age of 85, Avison won the $40,000 Griffin Poetry Prize for her work Concrete and Wild Carrot; the judges called Margaret "a national treasure."

Margaret Avison in June, 2005, with award presenter, Earl Davey, left, Provost of Tyndale University College and Seminary; photo Jane Twohey/The Word Guild

Margaret gave a rare, two-hour interview to journalist/photographer Sue Careless shortly after winning the Griffin Prize, in which she talked about her conversion and her Christian faith. Sue, who is a professional member of The Word Guild, generously offered to share the article and photo, which originally were published in July 2003 in ChristianWeek. Margaret's poem "Leading Questions" is included.