Sharon Stewart is a freelance editor based in Ottawa. The judges were full of praise for Sharon’s work. They noted that the project was an inherently difficult one, given the tight deadline and the complexity and rough state of the manuscript. They were unanimous in applauding her professionalism, conscientiousness and good humour in transforming the manuscript into a work of which her client could be proud. Indeed, they noted that she went well beyond the call of duty in discharging her editorial responsibilities. Their final comment was that her work was “phenomenal.”
The runner up is Gil Croome for his work on Mildred Minturn (Shoreline Press: 1995).
The judges praised Gil’s thoroughness, meticulousness, persistence, and tact in transforming a document originally intended for family consumption into a biography with wider appeal. They concluded that this was a fine example of top-to-bottom editing, and is the more so given the distance between the principals and the inherently delicate task of editing a document involving one’s own family.
This year’s judges were: Jean Wilson, Senior Editor of UBC Press; Heather Ebbs, a former EAC President and Fairley Award winner and John Eerkes-Medrano, another EAC veteran and former Fairley Award winner.