Submissions Open: Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards 2023

Submit your stories, songs, articles/memoir, poems and artworks to the five Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards 2023. View the Eligibility Criteria, Submission Guidelines and the judging process at the links below:

Vera Manuel Award for Poetry
Joy Kogawa Award for Fiction
Faith Nolan Award for Music
Susan Crean Award for Nonfiction
Norval Morrisseau Award for Visual Arts

Each award is open to Canadian poets, fiction writers, musicians, nonfiction writers and visual artists. Each award promises $1000 for the first-place winner, citations and perks for the second and third place winners, Honorable Mentions and the Longlisters.

The five Judges and 10 Jury Members will be announced during July, stay tuned.

Submissions timeline is June 1- August 15, 2023. The winners will be announced on October 28, and the awards ceremony will take place on November 25 in Surrey, British Columbia.

Last year, over 300 writers, poets, musicians and artists residing in 66 different cities in Canada, participated in this contest. View 2022 Award Winners

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Project Funded By

Surrey Muse Featured Artists

The Estate of Norval Morrisseau

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nous remercions le Conseil des arts du Canada de son soutien.

..

Surrey Muse Arts Society operates from
the unceded Coast Salish territories of
the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen
Qayqayt, Tsawwassen, Musque

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Yanli Tang – Surrey Muse

Yanli Tang (she/her) is a painter, media producer and a photographer who grew up in China and she now lives in Vancouver exploring and synthesizing her art with different mediums such as poetry, writing, woodwork, pottery, modeling, live performances, and audio-visual experiences. Yanli is actively involved in West Coast music events bringing inspiration and beauty of art on-site, live-painting performances on stage, and face/body painting for crowds on dance floor. With a decade of experience as the founder of one of the best underground record shops, music labels and band managers in China, it was a logical transition for Yanli to interact with local underground live music scene and the rave communities she loves. Yanli is a self-taught multi-disciplinary artist who has been working full time in the field since 2017. This year, she is focusing on a series of big canvas paintings, a set of female photography themes, and videography.

Visit Yanli’s website
yanliart.com
Follow Yanli on Instagram
@yanliart

At the May 27, 2023 gathering of Surrey Muse, Yanli will be the Artist-At-Work creating art while readings are happening. More about the event is here: sat-may-27

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Support SMAS Projects
Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards
Surrey Muse At Large (SMAL)
Surrey Muse Writers
Women Who Named the Unnamed

Contact
surrey.muse@gmail.com

Surrey Muse gatherings take place
on the unceded Coast Salish territories of
the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen
Qayqayt, Tsawwassen, Musqueam
Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

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Kenzie Housego – Surrey Muse

Kenzie Housego is a Calgary-based multidisciplinary artist and arts activist who has recently completed a Master of Fine Art specializing in new media at the University of Calgary, Mohkinstsis, in Treaty 7 region southern Alberta. As a multidisciplinary artist, her practice includes fiber, embroidery, new media, and assemblage mediums. The use of technology such as LEDs, Arduino micro-controllers, texting, and screens within her research is symbolic of the virtual realms in which we participate as a society. It’s important to Kenzie that her artwork always offers an invitation for interactivity, encouraging viewers to shift from being passive observers to active co-producers as they engage with the digital media, experience other points of view, and ultimately, form their own individual meanings. Her recent series titled “❤️💔❤️” explores contemporary courtship, romance, technology, and historical signs and signifiers connected to dating and romance. Kenzie has had the opportunity to showcase her art nationally and internationally. Kenzie is the Second Place Winner of the Norval Morrisseau Award for Visual Arts 2022.

Visit Kenzie’s website
kenziehousego.com
Follow her on Twitter
@kenziehousego
Contact Kenzie
kenzie.housego@gmail.com

At the February 25, 2023 gathering of Surrey Muse, Kenzie will be the Featured Artist. More about the event is here: saturday-february-25

JOIN us on Facebook
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Virtual gatherings
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Gatherings
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Support SMAS Projects
Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards
Surrey Muse At Large (SMAL)
Surrey Muse Writers
Women Who Named the Unnamed

Contact
surrey.muse@gmail.com

Surrey Muse gatherings take place
on the unceded Coast Salish territories of
the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen
Qayqayt, Tsawwassen, Musqueam
Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

.

Liz Toohey-Wiese – Surrey Muse

Liz Toohey-Wiese is a settler artist residing on the homelands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and sə̓lílwətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. She is a graduate from the MFA program at NSCAD University. She completed her undergraduate degree in painting at Emily Carr University, also undertaking coursework at the University of Victoria and the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. She has taken part in solo and group shows across Canada, and recently was the artist in residence at the Sointula Art Shed (2019), the Caetani Cultural Center (2020/21/22), and Island Mountain Arts (2021). Deeply interested in the history of landscape painting, her paintings explore contemporary relationships between identity and place. Her most recent work explores the complicated topic of wildfires and their connections to tourism, economy, grief, and renewal. She is an instructor of Drawing and Painting at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Visit Liz’s website
liztoohey-wiese.com
Contact Liz
liz.toohey-wiese@kpu.ca

At the October 28, 2022 gathering of Surrey Muse, Liz will be the Featured Artist. More about the event is here: friday-october-28

JOIN us on Facebook
Surrey Muse Arts Society (SMAS)
LIKE us on Facebook
facebook.com/pages/Surrey-Muse
FOLLOW on Twitter
@SurreyMuse
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Virtual gatherings
surreymuse.wordpress.com/virtual
Gatherings
surreymuse.wordpress.com/meetings
Program
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Support SMAS Projects
Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards
Surrey Muse At Large (SMAL)
Surrey Muse Writers
Women Who Named the Unnamed

Contact
surrey.muse@gmail.com

Surrey Muse gatherings take place
on the unceded Coast Salish territories of
the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen
Qayqayt, Tsawwassen, Musqueam
Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

.

Dhanmatie Singh – Surrey Muse

Dhanmatie Singh (also known as Dhana) is a painter, teacher and an activist of Guyanese descent. An art and chocolate junkie, she once painted a 50-foot-wide mural wrapped around a beach-themed restaurant. She paints the world as an activist and ally. Her creations are stark and direct, with vivid colours, a distinctive emotional appeal, and clear composition around intense themes such as the resilience of Indo-Caribbean women, violence against women, and post-colonial violence and resistance. As a teen, Dhanmatie felt restricted in her role as an Indo-Caribbean Canadian woman and dreamt of revolution. Seeking identity, she became deeply engaged in women’s rights and expressed that through art, writing, and public speaking. She joined Diva: A Quarterly Journal of Women of South Asian Origin in the early ‘90s, a grassroots organization in Toronto that created an alternate platform for feminist dialogue for women of colour that eventually became part of a worldwide wave of liberation to gaining an anti-oppression perspective within our human rights framework. The journal allowed her a voice where she made content-driven art pieces for articles, art for its aesthetic content, and painted posters for women’s conferences. She worked with Diva as part of the Editorial Collective and an Assistant Art Director. Now, Dhanmatie is a Social Service Worker, a third-year student at York University achieving her Bachelor of Arts in Educational Studies degree, and an art instructor working within the vulnerable sector. Pre-pandemic, she joined the Jamaican Partnership with Seneca College to provide services to struggling marginalized communities in Kingston, Jamaica. Dozens of Dhanmatie’s beautiful, commission-based paintings have been sold since her days at Diva. Revolution still stirs frequently in her heart.

Follow Dahmatie on InstaGram
@dhanmatie11
Contact Dhanmatie
dhana.hartman@gmail.com

At the June 24, 2022 gathering of Surrey Muse, Dhanmatie will begin the Open Mic session. More about the event is here: friday-june-24

JOIN us on Facebook
Surrey Muse Arts Society (SMAS)
LIKE us on Facebook
facebook.com/pages/Surrey-Muse
FOLLOW on Twitter
@SurreyMuse
FOLLOW on InstaGram
surreymuse.arts

Virtual gatherings
surreymuse.wordpress.com/virtual
Gatherings
surreymuse.wordpress.com/meetings
Program
surreymuse.wordpress.com/program

Support SMAS Projects
Surrey Muse Art & Literature Awards
Surrey Muse At Large (SMAL)
Surrey Muse Writers
Women Who Named the Unnamed

Contact
surrey.muse@gmail.com

Surrey Muse gatherings take place
on the unceded Coast Salish territories of
the Semiahmoo, Katzie, Kwikwetlem, Kwantlen
Qayqayt, Tsawwassen, Musqueam
Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

.