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Jason Jobin Wins The Malahat Review's 2019 Far Horizons Award for Fiction

Congratulations to Jason Jobin, who has won this year's Far Horizons Award for Fiction with his short story, "Triage"! For his literary achievements, Jobin wins the $1,000 prize and publication in Issue #208.

The Far Horizons Award celebrates the achievement of emerging writers who have yet to publish their fiction in book form.

Here's what contest judge Mehdi M. Kashani had to say about Jobin's winning piece: "I tend to be skeptical of stories that are framed during some sort of well-known holiday or festivity. I think the familiar tropes in these settings are shortcuts that could potentially be misused. 'Triage' opens with 'It's Halloween...' and readers find themselves in the middle of a hospital-themed party. So, naturally, I was on the hunt for the pitfalls of this type of story. But the author treads through possible rough waters with an expert eye for details, be it in character or scene. Even the protagonist's costume of choice informs his alienating attitude, and so does other guests' behaviour towards him, all this a deliberate dance between show and tell. The revelation at the end (and the shocking way it's communicated) acted as a tie-breaker, for me, to select this story over the other excellent candidates."

Jason Jobin

 

Jason Jobin grew up on an acreage in the Yukon. He completed a B.A. and M.F.A. in writing at the University of Victoria, where he studied fiction and screenwriting, and developed his own course on how to rap. His fiction has won The Malahat Review’s Jack Hodgins Founders’ Award and a Silver at the National Magazine Awards, and has been longlisted for The Fiddlehead Prize. For him, writing is a place to show the fallout of people in suddenly new situations, the moments that wake you up and that you think back on when falling asleep. He currently lives and writes in Victoria and is working on a short story collection and novel.

Look for an interview with Jason Jobin in our upcoming August e-newsletter!

Mehdi M. KashaniMehdi M. Kashani lives and writes in Toronto, Canada. His fiction and nonfiction can be found in Passages North, The Rumpus, Catapult, The Malahat Review, Wigleaf, The Walrus, and Bellevue Literary Review,among others. He has work forthcoming in Emrys Journal (for which he won the 2019 Sue Lile Inman Fiction Award), Fiddlehead, Four Way Review, and The Minnesota Review. To learn more about him, visit his website: http://www.mehdimkashani.com

 

 

 

 

 

We would also like to congratulate this year's finalists:

Sandhya Atukorala, "Big Girl"
Colwill Brown, "Slips"
Fraser Calderwood, "North Portal"
Francine Cunningham, "Glitter Like Herpes"
Jason Jobin, "Triage"
Malka Gould, "Some Theories of Time Travel"
Tamara Masri, "The Clock Flower"
Mary Thaler, "Mouse"
Izabela Wlodarczyk, "Obvious Prey"

Previous Prize Winners