NorthWords is looking for NWT residents to judge books for its annual awards in November. What does that actually involve? We asked two former judges to tell us.
The NWT literary non-profit says people offering to judge books must have “a strong connection to the North and a passion for literature and storytelling.”
Last month, the organization opened submissions for books published in 2023 by authors in the territory.
While nominations were accepted for novels, children’s books, collections of short stories, poetry and essays, creative non-fiction and memoirs that have northern themes, the prizes fall into two broad categories – children/youth and adult – that each offer a prize of $1,000.
Once selected, judges will be given all of the books from the youth and adult categories in September and will have a month to read them.
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They will also participate in two to three discussions with other judges to rank the books and help decide winners under each category.
For Myranda Bolstad, who loves talking about books with likeminded readers, the judging process was “fun and exciting.” Bolstad signed up to be part of the 2022 awards, her first time being a judge alongside two other participants.
The number of books to be read varies depending on how many authors submit works for consideration in any given year. During Covid-19, there weren’t many entries, which meant Bolstad only had four books to go through – two in each category.
Out of those, Richard Van Camp’s Gather won the adult award, while King Warrior, written by Jay Bulckaert and Erika Nyyssonen with illustrations by Lucas Green, received the youth award.
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At the time, Bolstad said NorthWords didn’t have a formal callout for volunteer judges and had a lot of “catching up to do after the pandemic.”
“The pandemic impacted us all differently. Some people were very productive on their sourdoughs and it seemed like northern book production slowed down a little,” she told Cabin Radio.
“I was specifically hand-picked to see if I’d be willing to put my time and effort into judging. I hadn’t necessarily thought about judging before, until I was asked.”
Bolstad said NorthWords provided a list of questions to consider, though “they really leave it up to you to connect with the fellow judges, to discuss those questions after you’ve read the book, and to have a discussion about why you feel a particular book meets the criteria for that award more closely than others.”
“If you’re a book nerd like me, it’s kind-of fun to sit together in a group of people who have read the same book and talk about it together. With books that have been submitted for awards, you know that these are the works that people are most proud of, that they’ve submitted on their own,” she added.
While some books were 200-300 pages long, other graphic novels in the youth category stretched to just under 30 pages.
Bolstad compared being a judge to being in a “small, private book club” where at the end of the day, “someone gets to go home with a prize rather than leftover cake.”
She has put her own children’s books up for consideration at this year’s awards, and says she would apply to be a judge again in future.
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“It’ll be quite a commitment, but it’s a good commitment to have if you’re interested in books and interested in the northern voice,” she said.
‘Four different conflicts’
Yellowknife resident Grace Guy, who was a judge alongside Bolstad for the same year’s awards, said her interest in local literature made her send in an application to judge submissions.
Guy is a board member for NorthWords and reviews books for the Yellowknifer newspaper.
“It’s always an exciting opportunity to learn more about the people in your own community who are really creative. What was fun about the NorthWords judging competition is that, all of the books I had to judge, I knew the people who had written them personally,” Guy said.
“I was like, ‘Oh, is this a conflict of interest if I know them?’ Then it turns out to be four different conflicts of interest. Maybe this cancels out. That was just really delightful.”
She remembers getting through the books “pretty quickly” in the year she served as a judge.
“We actually got together and discussed all of the books at the same time, which I think was helpful, because it gave more of a balanced perspective,” she said.
Guy advices those interested in judging books for this year’s awards to be “very upfront” about “where you’re from and why you’re interested in reading the books.”
“What makes you specifically interested in reading those kinds of books and talking about them with a group of other people who also care a lot?” she said.
Those interested in being a judge for the 2024 awards can contact NorthWords’ executive director. You can still submit books for the awards until August 16.
