Awards
LOST: A MEMOIR — the Drama…
Nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Drama, 2012
Nominated for Outstanding New Play, 2011 Betty Mitchell Awards, Calgary
Top Ten Theatre Shows for 2011 — Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis
Best 11 plays of 2011 — The Chronicle Herald, Halifax
KARMA has been honoured in so many ways…
Alberta Literary Awards Winner –
R. Ross Annett Children’s Award, 2012 Read MoreSouth Asia Book Award (SABA), Highly Commended Book, 2012 Read More
Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award, Honour Book, 2012 Read More
W.O. Mitchell Award City of Calgary, shortlist, 2012 Read More
Ontario Library Association Best Bets List,
Honourable Mention, 2012 Read MoreYALSA, Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2012
Read MoreBOOKLIST, Editor’s Choice, Best Books for Young Adults, 2012 Read More
LOST: A MEMOIR…
2009 EDNA STAEBLER CREATIVE NON-FICTION AWARD - shortlist
Four books have been shortlisted for the 2009 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non- Fiction. The $10,000 award, administered by Wilfrid Laurier University, encourages and recognizes Canadian writers for a first or second work of creative non-fiction that includes a Canadian locale and/or significance. Read More
Essays…
2007 National Magazine Awards, Personal Journalism, finalist
2007 Western Magazine Awards, Human Experience, finalist
2005 Prism Literary Non-Fiction Contest, shortlist
2004 CBC Literary Awards, Travel Writing, shortlist
2004 Event Magazine Creative Non-Fiction Contest, finalist
2002 CBC Canadian Literary Awards, Travel Writing, shortlist
2002 Western Magazine Awards, Human Experience, finalist
2001 Event Magazine Creative Non-Fiction Contest, winner
Why KARMA is verse
The style of Karma is something that I am often asked about. Why tell this story in free verse? Why not stay with a regular prose format that readers are familiar with? The best answer I have to this question is that Karma’s poetic form suits the emotional lives of Maya and Sandeep. Their feelings are intense, their insights into the world are sharp and critical, and their understanding of what it means to be human is fresh, ragged, not yet smoothed by maturity, not yet smoothed by conventional narrative. Poetry is the perfect medium for their age. The short sentence. The precise image. The outbursts of feeling. Maya and Sandeep invite the reader to look inside their diaries where they reveal an intimate world of secrets, confessions and longings, and where poetry is a fire.
Edna Staebler Award
“Intensely lyrical, hypnotic and haunting, Cathy Ostlere’s memoir of personal loss is unafraid to take risks. The rich language of LOST pulls the reader into an intimate and singular state of mind, into a place “where time has collapsed” and a fierce gravity takes hold. This is a book that refuses easy consolation, taking us beyond a traditional tragic ending to reconsider our understanding of love, responsibility and loyalty. “