Doug Wright Awards Returned Live and In-Person to Announce their 2022 Winners!
The presentation took place outside during TCAF last night, Saturday, June 18th, in Harold Town Park in downtown Toronto. Hosted by the film critic Richard Crouse, it featured appearances by past winners Jenn Woodall and David Collier (unscheduled), as well as frequent DWA host Dustin Harbin.
Without further adu, Here are this year’s winners:
The Doug Wright Award for best book
The Shiatsung Project
Brigitte Archambault
Conundrum Press
The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for emerging talent
(Sponsored by Koyama Provides)
Sami Alwani
The Pleasure of the Text
Conundrum Press
The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for best small or micro-press book
(Sponsored by Broken Pencil)
Dwellings No. 2
Jay Stephens
Black Eye Books
The Egghead: The Doug Wright Award for best kids’ book
Shirley and Jamila’s Big Fall
Gillian Goerz
Dial Books for Young Readers
The year’s inductee into the Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame was Margaret Bloy Graham (1921–2015), the children’s book author-illustrator, best known for the book Harry the Dirty Dog. The artist Seth inducted Graham, and read a statement provided by her family.
Winners in each category receive a trophy (or bowler hat, in the case of the Pigskin Peters) and a small cash prize. The winner of The Nipper also receives a week-long stay at the Valleyview Artist Retreat, in Caledon, Ontario.
Several dozen people, some on the grass, some on chairs, attended the first in-person Doug Wright Awards ceremony since the beginning of the pandemic. The event was also livestreamed on YouTube, an act last night’s wind rendered completely useless.
The folks at the Beguiling have put together a special shopping list of all of this year’s DWA nominees on its online store.
Congratulations to all the winners!
Sponsors
Thanks to this year’s sponsors: Toronto Life, Koyama Provides, Broken Pencil, Valleyview Artist Retreat, Strange Adventures, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Taddle Creek, the Beguiling, and the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.l.
About the Doug Wright Awards
The Doug Wright Awards were founded in 2005 to celebrate excellence in the field of Canadian comics. The awards are named for Doug Wright (1917–1983), the creator of the long-running strip Doug Wright’s Family (a.k.a. Nipper), one of the most widely read and loved Canadian comics of the twentieth century.
Media Requests
dougwrightawards@gmail.com
18th Annual Doug Wright Awards poster art is by Elise Gravel.