NLAC Press Release on Joel Thomas Hynes winning Lawrence Jackson Award

Joel Thomas Hynes wins the 2007 Lawrence Jackson Writers’ Award

March 4, 2008, St. John’s, NL – Joel Thomas Hynes is the winner of the 2007 Lawrence Jackson Writers’Award. The $500 cash award encourages and promotes original, creative thought in all genres of writing. It was presented last night at the LSPU Hall Gallery at the Writers’ Alliance Monthly Reading Series.

The award honours the memory of writer Lawrence Jackson. It is sponsored by his mother Frances Jackson, his wife Laura and children Willow, Holly and Ben, with generous contributions from family and friends to the Lawrence Jackson Trust Fund.

Joel Thomas Hynes is the award winning author of the novels Down to the Dirt and Right Away Monday, both available through HarperCollins Publishers. He co-wrote the acclaimed stageplay The Devil You Dont Know, and his most recent play, Say Nothing Saw Wood, won the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Award for Best Dramatic Script. Also an actor, Hynes has performed leading roles in numerous stageplays, films and television productions. He was a contributing writer and played a leading role in the CBC’s Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, and most recently played the lead role in the feature film Down to the Dirt, which is coming soon to theatres across the country. Currently he is teaching creative writing to the inmates at Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador and is working on his third novel and his first screenplay.

The Lawrence Jackson Writers’ Award is administered by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council (NLAC). All applicants to the NLAC’s Project Grants Program in the writing category are considered for the award. One award of $500 is given annually. The winner is selected by a peer assessment committee.

Media contact:

Reg Winsor
Executive Director
Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council
(709) 726-2212
1 (866) 726-2212 (Toll free NL only)
rwinsor@nf.aibn.com
www.nlac.nf.ca