Vancouver, May 27, 1999 — The Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC) named Elizabeth McLean of Shawnigan Lake, BC, as winner of the Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence for 1999. The announcement was made at the Saturday night banquet for Editing on the Edge, EAC’s annual conference, held in Vancouver this year. This is the 17th annual Fairley Award.
“Outstanding.” That was the unanimous opinion of the three judges (all experienced editors). “She reorganized chapters; restructured and made consistent the sections of each chapter; deleted repetitious treatments and significantly condensed the manuscript,” said the judges. “Her clear, intelligent questions; sound medical knowledge and level-headedness and diplomacy throughout the editorial process made an enormous undertaking manageable and successful.”
In her address following the presentation, Elizabeth said credit should go to the author and publisher: “The work triangle of author, editor and publisher can sometimes seem as delicate a relationship as a love triangle. It seems to me a real gift when publishers and authors grant us their trust as we work together to create something of quality.”
Tom Fairley Award nominees Jim MacLachlan and Geoffrey Ursell were also honoured at the banquet.