Vancouver's C.E. Gatchalian named winner of LGBT literary award

A Vancouver playwright has won the seventh annual Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBT Emerging Writers.

On June 26, NOW magazine editor Susan G. Cole announced in Toronto during Pride Week that the Writers' Trust of Canada named C.E. Gatchalian the winner of the $4,000 prize to an emerging gay, lersbian, bisexual, or transgender writer who shows literary promise through their published work.

Gatchalian writes drama, poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and is also a Frank Theatre Company artistic producer. His plays include Broken, Crossing, Claire, and Motifs & Repetitions, and his most recent play, Falling in Time,was a 2013 finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Best LGBT Drama.

The jury, consisting of authors Amber Dawn (who won the 2012 Dayne Ogilvie Prize), Anne Fleming, and Vivek Shraya, explained why they chose Gatchalian as the winner in a statement:

C.E. Gatchalian’s multifarious voice has emerged in many places. As a playwright, poet, cultural curator, and mentor, Gatchalian is reaching ever-growing audiences across Canada, not only broadening the creative dialogue on queer identity, but also championing intricate portraits of race, survivorship, and sexuality. Being both candid and complex requires assiduity on the part of the author. His newest play, Falling in Time, is an unflinching look at war, masculinity, migration, intimacy, and love.

Two novelists, Toronto's Anand Mahadevan (The Strike) and Montreal's Barry Webster (The Sound of All Flesh, The Lava in My Bones), each won honours of distinction and received $250 each.