The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival is now offering a new Banff Mountain Book Competition award in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the festival. The Mountaineering Article Award is awarded to authors of articles or short form essays of up to 7,000 words on the theme of mountaineering, climbing or mountain adventure.
The Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival is now offering a new Banff Mountain Book Competition award in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the festival.
The Mountaineering Article Award is awarded to authors of articles or short form essays of up to 7,000 words on the theme of mountaineering, climbing or mountain adventure.
Articles submitted may be fiction, historical or non-fiction narratives and must have been printed within the last two years to qualify.
“The new award is in conjunction with our already existing book competition and it's for short-form writing, so that would include magazine articles, articles from newspapers and mountaineering journals,” said Joanna Croston, programming director of the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival.
“The idea came from a couple of folks that work at the University of Alberta at the Canadian Mountain Studies Initiative and they came forward to us at the festival suggesting we start up a prize like this.”
The $2,000 Mountaineering Article Award is sponsored by the University of Alberta's Faculty of Physical Education, The Canadian Mountain Studies Initiative and The Alpine Club of Canada.
“We certainly wanted to work with the University of Alberta to bring it to fruition through the resources we have and the platforms we already use for our own book competition, so it really seemed to be a good alignment for us,” Croston said. “I definitely think this is a nice gesture for those who are in mountain writing or who are just entering into the genre.”
Croston pointed out many climbers, mountaineers and adventurers start their foray into writing through magazine articles and journals. “This is a bit of a celebration of that style of writing for young and up and coming writers and certainly there's a lot of established article writers too in the genre,” Croston said.
Two to three articles may be submitted by the editors of publications annually, with the deadline for submission slated for June 30, 2015.
“U of A and the Canadian Mountain Studies Initiative, which is part of the U of A program, are closely affiliated and were the ones that brought forward the idea at the time, but they didn't actually think they would have any funding to contribute, but the University of Alberta has recognized that it's in fact a good thing to support,” Croston said.
“The Alpine Club of Canada supports the Canadian Studies Initiative already, so this was just another sort of item in their portfolio of support and the Alpine Club of Canada, they publish the Canadian Alpine Journal annually, so they have a vested interest as well in that type of writing. So I think there's a real connection – I think there are a lot of local writers who will be really excited by the news.”
For further information on the Mountaineering Article Award visit, www.banffcentre.ca/mountainfestival/competitions/book/pdf/Mountaineering-Article-Award.pdf or email [email protected].
