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Finalists for 2009 Doug Wright Awards announced

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Alan Gardner March 23, 2009 1 minute 0 comments

This year’s finalists for the 2009 Doug Wright Awards.

The 2009 finalists for Best Book are:

• Burma Chronicles Guy Delisle (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Drop-in Dave Lapp (Conundrum Press)
• Paul Goes Fishing Michel Rabagliati (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Skim Jillian & Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood Books)

The 2009 finalists for Best Emerging Talent are:

• Kate Beaton (History Comics)
• Caitlin Black (Maids in the Mist)
• Jesse Jacobs (Blue Winter, Shapes in the Snow)
• Jason Kieffer (Kieffer #2)
• Nick Maandag (Jack & Mandy)

The finalists for the DWAs second annual Pigskin Peters’ Award, which recognizes avant-garde comics and other non-traditional works, are:

Hall of Best Knowledge Ray Fenwick (Fantagraphics)
• Ojingogo Matthew Forsythe (Drawn & Quarterly)
• All We Ever Do is Talk About Wood Tom Horacek (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Small Victories Jesse Jacobs (self-published)

Established in 2008, the Pigskin Peters Award is named after a popular character in the classic Canadian comic strip Birdseye Center by cartoonist Jimmie Frise. In 1948, Doug Wright inherited Frise’s strip and would continue to draw it for the next two decades.

This year, the Wright Awards will induct Frise (who died in 1948) into The Giants of the North Hall of Fame for Canadian cartooning.

The DWAs are also pleased to announce that filmmaker Don McKellar will host this year’s awards ceremony, which will be held at the Art Gallery of Ontario’s (AGO) Jackman Hall. A Gemini- and Tony-award- winning actor, writer and director, McKellar is a long-time comics’ fan and served as a jury member for the inaugural Wright Awards in 2005.

The winners of the Best Emerging Talent and Best Book trophies will de decided by the 2009 DWA jury which includes; Bob Rae (the Member of Parliament for Toronto Centre and 21st premier of Ontario), Andrew Coyne (national editor for Maclean's and political panelist on CBC Television's The National), Martin Levin (books editor for The Globe and Mail and contributor to What I Meant to Say), cartoonist Joe Ollmann (author of the 2007 DWA Best Book This Will All End in Tears) and cartoonist Diana Tamblyn, the Ignatz-nominated author of several mini-comics including The Rosie Stories and There You Were.

A featured event of the Toronto Comics Arts Festival (TCAF), the 2009 Doug Wright Awards will take place on Sat. May 9, 2009 at 7:00 pm.