Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Iqaluit ( Jun 12/00) - From Pond Inlet to Arviat, from Kugluktuk to Coral Harbour, writers of all ages have laboured over stories and poetry.

The goal? Entering the Nunavut Literacy Council's writing contest -- the first belonging solely to the territory since division.

"We received 228 entries," says co-ordinator Mark Tindall.

"We're very pleased with the number of entries, as well as seeing entries in the different languages. We were pleased to see a good number of Inuktitut entries."

Submissions were accepted in Nunavut's four official languages -- Inuktitut, Innuiaqtun, English and French. There were no Innuiaqtun entries.

Tindall says the judges were also very pleased with the quality of the entries.

Levinia Brown, Metro Solomon, Michele Ashby and Sue Shirley, all of Rankin Inlet, where the council is based, judged the entries.

There were 20 categories determined by language, age and genre -- poetry, fiction and non-fiction. First-, second- and third-place prizes were awarded to a total of 57 writers.

"That's one thing I think we did that I don't think the NWT did (three prizes per category). We recognized a larger number of people, in that sense," says Tindall.

All winners received book prizes and council shirts.

Arviat's Thomas Okatsiak had the best overall entry. He won the Norman McPherson Award for his fictional story No Sword Like the Inuk's Sword, The Panah. The award comes with a cash prize of $500.

Briana Rempel, of Rankin Inlet, took the Best Children's Entry prize.

All winning entries will be featured in a council flyer that will be included an upcoming edition of News/North.

The council itself, taking a page from the NWT's literacy council, will publish a book sometime in August. Other selected entries will be included with winning entries.

"The entries will represent the different regions of Nunavut, a representative number of stories," says Tindall.