The Editors’ Association of Canada (EAC) has announced that Grace Yaginuma of Vancouver, BC, is the winner of the 2014 Tom Fairley Award for Editorial Excellence. Yaginuma was awarded the $2,000 prize for her work on A Discerning Eye: The Walter C. Koerner Collection of European Ceramics by MOA curator Carol E. Mayer (Figure 1 Publishing). The award was presented at EAC’s annual awards banquet, which took place on June 13, 2015, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.
“It’s an unbelievable honour to stand here in front of a roomful of distinguished editors,” said Yaginuma, who went on to thank her team at Figure 1 Publishing. “Their magical talents and commitment made the whole process easier and even lots of fun. It was very inspiring.”
“I’d like to extend a general and warm-hearted thank you to all the editors I’ve met and learned from over the years. The editing community in Vancouver has been nothing but welcoming, supportive, generous and ridiculously humble.”
A Discerning Eye is a lavish celebration of the impressive Walter C. Koerner collection, highlighting approximately 200 functional and decorative wares from the 16th to the 19th century. Yaginuma performed structural, stylistic and copy editing for the project and was praised by the judges for editing the manuscript expertly at all levels. “This very fine publication would not have been possible without [her] excellent editorial work and file management,” said one judge.
The other Canadian editors shortlisted for their editorial excellence were Sue MacLeod of Toronto, ON, and Suzanne Rent of Halifax, NS. MacLeod, the editor of Mending Hearts, Building Bridges: The Story of Save a Child’s Heart by Bernard Goldman (Save a Child’s Heart Foundation), “did a superlative job of finding the gold in a mountain of text and shaping it into a cohesive and powerful book.” Rent, the editor of Our Children (Metro Guide Publishing), was commended as a mentor for young talent and as a community advocate. “She shows us a side of editors that we often forget,” said one judge. “We are caring, involved and creative people within our local communities as much as we are line-tamers and grammar gurus.” MacLeod and Rent each received cash awards of $500 in recognition of their outstanding achievements.
The judges for the 2014 Tom Fairley Award are respected Canadian editors. Peter Midgley is the author of a travel memoir, Counting Teeth: A Namibian Story, and was the recipient of the 2013 Tom Fairley Award. He is also the senior editor (acquisitions) at the University of Alberta Press. Sandy Newton is a freelance writer, editor and consultant. She co-authored Birds of Newfoundland (winner of a 2010 Atlantic Book Award) and won the 2012 Tom Fairley Award. Rosemary Shipton was the founding coordinator of the Publishing Program at Ryerson University. She has taught all levels of editing. In 2007, Trinity College, University of Toronto, granted her an honorary doctorate for her contribution to publishing in Canada.
Read the full press release here.