FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto, June 23, 2025— The Editors’ Association of Canada (Editors Canada) has announced that Eleanor Gasparik of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, is the winner of the 2025 Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence.
The Tom Fairley Award is presented annually by Editors Canada to an exceptional editor who played an important role in the success of a project completed in English or French. The award was presented during Editors Canada’s online awards ceremony on June 18, 2025.
Eleanor Gasparik
Paul Kane’s Travels in Indigenous North America: Writings and Art, Life and Times
by I.S. MacLaren
(McGill-Queen’s University Press)
Eleanor Gasparik (Lunenburg, Nova Scotia) was awarded the $2,000 prize for her work on Paul Kane’s Travels in Indigenous North America: Writings and Art, Life and Times by I.S. MacLaren (McGill-Queen’s University Press). The 2025 award recognizes an exceptional editor who played an important role in a project published in the 2024 calendar year.
Paul Kane’s Travels in Indigenous North America: Writings and Art, Life and Times was a huge project with an enormous volume of material, representing the life’s work of a scholar: a staggeringly complex, three-year, four-volume project of 1.2 million words, with a large index, and many images and figures.
Over the course of the project, Eleanor Gasparik completed several rounds of copy and/or line editing with some stylistic and substantive editing. The judges noted there was also an exceptional amount of project management that required incredible organization and attention to detail, including the ability to keep track of multiple languages with special characters. She was accommodating of the author’s wishes, and diplomatic and reassuring in her communication with him. In her editing, she took care to preserve the author’s voice while improving clarity.
“I was impressed by Eleanor Gasparik’s outstanding achievement of editing a project with the colossal volume and scope of Paul Kane’s Travels in Indigenous North America,” said one judge. “I also appreciated the editor’s careful attention to the multiple Indigenous languages included in the manuscript, and their ability to coordinate consistent changes across multiple documents—a real testament to their precision and professionalism.”
The other editors shortlisted for their editorial excellence were Tara Avery of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Andrea Zanin of Toronto, Ontario.
Finalists
Tara Avery
A Symphony of Starlight
by Amy Zed
(Amy Zed)
Tara Avery’s care for her author was evident. Throughout the process, she gave her confidence and made her feel respected and supported as a new author, helping her to find and develop her writing voice, and often acting as a writing coach and a guide to the publishing industry.
“I was especially struck by the strong author-editor relationship based on trust and care that Tara Avery cultivated while working on A Symphony of Starlight,” said one of the judges. “What began as a manuscript critique evolved into a full developmental and copy edit, with the editor prompting the author to go deeper with thoughtful attention to character motivation and key questions around voice, identity and appropriation.”
The judges were impressed with her excellent queries to her author in the manuscript critique and throughout the manuscript. She identified problems and inconsistencies, and made great suggestions about plot points, backstory and character consistency that improved the story. She went above and beyond in brainstorming plot and character ideas and suggesting dialogue, helping to make the book the best it could be.
Andrea Zanin
How Do I Sexy? A Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Queers
by Mx. Nillin Lore
(Thornapple Press)
Andrea Zanin was the perfect editor for How Do I Sexy? A Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Queers. They made the process easy and comfortable for their first-time author, communicating well and reassuringly, all the while making it clear that the author was in control, respecting their voice and perspective, while offering strong guidance. They had a good grasp of the book’s audience and their expectations and used this to guide the author effectively.
The judges noted that they did a great job identifying missing or incomplete topics that should be addressed, cutting or streamlining tangential sections and excessive detail, identifying conflicting messages and helping to resolve them, and identifying when there was an overfocus on one topic to the exclusion of others. Suggestions were sensitive and constructive.
“Andrea Zanin’s editing of How Do I Sexy? A Guide for Trans and Nonbinary Queers was clear, well-organized, and thoughtful throughout,” said one judge. “The initial editorial letter stood out as particularly insightful, laying a strong foundation for the editing process. The editor demonstrated skill in both line editing and substantive editing, bringing depth and polish to the manuscript. In a great example of editorial excellence and trust, the editor cultivated a strong rapport with the author, leading to a lasting and productive relationship.”
Tara Avery and Andrea Zanin each received cash prizes of $500 in recognition of their exceptional editorial performance.
The judges for the 2025 Tom Fairley Award are respected Canadian editors.
Paula Ayer is the senior editor at Greystone Books, where she specializes in acquiring and editing non-fiction books related to nature, environmental issues, health and science. She is also the author of several award-winning non-fiction books for young people. She received the Tom Fairley Award in 2024 for her work on Pitfall by Christopher Pollon.
Amanda Lewis is an award-winning editor, writer and publishing strategist. She was inaugural editorial director with Page Two, and editor and associate managing editor at Penguin Random House Canada. She is the author of Tracking Giants: Big Trees, Tiny Triumphs, and Misadventures in the Forest. Amanda received the 2020 Tom Fairley Award for her work on Indigenous Relations by Bob Joseph with Cynthia F. Joseph.
Shirarose Wilensky is an editor at House of Anansi Press, where she specializes in literary fiction and narrative non-fiction. She won the Editors Canada Tom Fairley Award in 2021 for editing Butter Honey Pig Bread by francesca ekwuyasi.
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About Editors Canada
Additional information about the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence is available on the Editors Canada website.
Editors Canada began in 1979 as the Freelance Editors’ Association of Canada to promote and maintain high standards of editing. In 1994, the word “Freelance” was dropped to reflect the association’s expanding focus to serve both freelance and in-house editors. As Canada’s only national editorial association, it is the hub for members and affiliates, both salaried and freelance, who work in the corporate, technical, government, not-for-profit and publishing sectors. The association’s professional development programs and services include professional certification, an annual conference, seminars, webinars, and networking with other associations. Editors Canada has four regional branches: British Columbia; Toronto; Ottawa–Gatineau; and Quebec, as well as smaller branches (called twigs) in Atlantic Canada, Barrie, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton-Halton, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo-Guelph and Manitoba.
Media contact
Michelle Ou (she/elle)
Senior Communications Manager
Editors Canada
communications@editors.ca