Kositsky awarded $25,000 grant by Canada Council for the Arts

Lynne Kositsky

Shakespeare authorship researcher and novelist Lynne Kositsky has been honored by the Canada Council for the Arts with a $25,000 grant. The funds were awarded to help Kositsky finish her young-adult novel with the working title of A Scattering of Stars. Kositsky said:

Every year, in October, Canadian authors can write applications to the Canada Council for the Arts for grants to help them finish their new books. I entered last year, enclosing about 15 pages of my new young-adult novel -- all I'd written of it at the time. I added some pages from one of my published novels, as allowed. There are, obviously, a limited number of grants available, and fierce competition for them. Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from the Canada Council telling me that I'd been awarded a $25,000 grant -- the maximum given -- to help me finish my book. The grant covers living, research, and travel expenses. It's very welcome and I'm totally thrilled.

Kositsky has also been awarded $3000 in grants from her home province of Ontario to support her work. A Scattering of Stars is her second young-adult novel about the Holocaust. Her acclaimed novel The Thought of High Windows was awarded the Canadian Jewish Book Award for Youth in 2006. The new novel will follow the life of a German girl who escapes the Nazis by traveling to Shanghai. The working title of the new novel is inspired by a quote from Georg Buchner, “The stars are scattered through the night like glistening teardrops; what a terrible grief must be behind the eyes that dropped them.”

Commenting on the award, Kositsky said:

The Canada Council for the Arts grant will make a tremendous difference to me. It will allow me to travel, interview survivors, and do further research. Part of it can be used for living expenses while writing. And the recognition of my work is very exciting.

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