Weighing the magazine factor for Trillium Book Award finalists

Magazines have played a part in the careers of some of  the English finalists for the $20,000 Trillium Book Award, Ontario's most prestigious literary prize. Among those for fiction:

• James Fitzgerald, for What Disturbs the Blood (Random House Canada). Fitzgerald has been a frequent contributor to Toronto Life and the University of Toronto magazine. 
•  Ken Sparling, for Book (Pedlar Press). Publication of Sparling's first book was the result of submitting work to the late Toronto literary journal Blood & Aphorisms.
• Paul Vermeersch, for The Reinvention of the Human Hand (McClelland and Stewart). Vermeersh's poetry began to be published in respected poetry journals in the late 1990s, later gathered into anthologies, and his work has been profiled in such magazines as Taddle Creek and The Danforth Review.

And for poetry:

•  Dani Couture, for Sweet (Pedlar Press). Couture's work has appeared in many literary journals, including Taddle Creek, The Fiddlehead and ARC Poetry.
• Jeff Latosik for Tiny, Frantic, Stronger (Insomniac Press). Latosik's poetry has appeared in many Canadian indy magazines and journals, including winning the P.K. Page Founder's Award from The Malahat Review in 2007, placing first in This Magazine's Great Canadian Literary Hunt in 2008.
• Shane Neilson, The Complete Physical (Porcupine's Quill Press). Neilson was a National Magazine Award nominee for poetry and won ARC Poetry's 15th annual Poem of the Year contest.
• Peter Norman, At the Gates of the Theme Park (Mansfield Press). Norman's work has appeared in The Malahat Review, The Fiddlehead, Prism International and the Byword Quarterly Journal.