Nunavut – Writer wins prize for nonfiction | Polarjournal
Comedian and writer Peter Igupttaq Autut from Nunavut, Canada, won thisyear’s Sally ManningAward for his story about hunting and fishing with his father as a child. (Photo: Beth Brown)

Canadian writer and comedian Peter Igupttaq Autut has received the Sally Manning Award. The Northern Canadian magazine Up Here announced this on July 31, 2020. Autut’s story “Winter In Chesterfield Inlet” tells the author’s memories of his travels in the countryside for hunting and fishing. This was reported by Eilis Quinn on the online platform “Eye on the Arctic”.

Igupttaq Autut performing at the North Arctic Comedy Festival in Iqaluit in October 2018. (Photo: Shawn MacDonell)

The jury praised the vibrancy and sensuality of the story. “His descriptions are so genuine that I feel the cold until it burns in my ear,” said jury member, storyteller and children’s author Michael Kusugak in the press release announcing the award.

“This is indigenous literature by Peter Igupttaq Autut. I hope you’re working on more chapters, more memories, more reflections on growing up,” added renowned Northwest Territories writer Richard Van Camp.

This year’s second place went to Shelly Wiart for a story that explores her Métis identity and is titled “My Northern Healing”.

Third place went to Carol Rose GoldenEagle for her story “The Ugly Little Christmas Tree” about a Christmas family tradition.

Recognition for aspiring writers

Sally Manning was a writer and teacher who spent much of her time in the North before she died in 2014.

The Sally Manning Award was created to honor aspiring First Nation, Inuit, and Metis writers who live in Canada’s northwestern Yukon Territory, the neighboring Northwest Territories (NWT), the eastern Arctic territory of Nunavut, Nunavik, the Inuit region of Arctic Quebec, or the Labrador region of Atlantic Canada. It is managed by the Yellowknife Community Foundation, a non-profit foundation.

Heiner Kubny, PolarJournal

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