It's actually Columbus, Georgia that is celebrating Carson McCullers, not Columbus, Ohio. But, yes, Georgia is very proud of McCullers, despite the fact that she couldn't wait to get out of the state (I can sympathize) and succeeded (albeit temporarily) at age 17.
Posted by: Matt at May 3, 2005 09:40 AMI must say you are incorrect on the residency rules for the Shuster Awards. To be eligible for a Shuster one has to be a Canadian citizen. Permanent residents will be considered... but very strictly. If Joe Matt released a book while living here and had become a Canadian citizen or applied and received permanent residence status he might qualify, but he would first need to be nominated and then we would have to contact him about specifics before announcing his nomination.
Posted by: Kevin Boyd at May 3, 2005 04:36 PMMatt: Thanks for the correction. Must drink coffee before collating links.
Kevin: First off, I thought you'd have a greater sense of humor about broadening the awards' definitions of what it is to be Canadian.
But since you are so stringent on this point, I should point out that Joe Matt was born in Philadelphia on September 3, 1963 and only stayed in Toronto for a number of years, before moving BACK to Philadelphia. If you, as one of the awards organizers, couldn't even contact Drawn & Quarterly or one of Matt's people to confirm his status as Canadian citizen BEFORE nominating him, and if this is such an important point, then you folks need to get more professional.
Then again, as I implied with the post, it's sort of nice to see an award without such rigid definitions. Your call, I suppose.
Posted by: Ed at May 3, 2005 05:26 PM