We are pleased to celebrate the news that Steve Kennedy, the editor of our testimony magazine, and two freelance writers for testimony, Lisa Hall-Wilson and Kimberley Parker, came out winners at this year’s Word Guild Awards Gala in Toronto, Ont. The Word Awards recognize the best work published in the previous year in 35 categories of writing, including novels, non-fiction books, articles, columns, poems, song lyrics, scripts and screenplays. Lisa Hall-Wilson won an award in the "Short Feature" category for her article "Violence Against Women—Stories That Need To Be Told and Listened To" which was published in the May/June 2015 issue of testimony. (You can read the article here.) Kimberley Parker won an award in the "Personal Experience" category for her article "The Mission on My Street—When Love Comes Back Around" which was published in the November/December 2015 issue. (Read that story here.) Kennedy won an award in the "Poetry" category for the poem "Afar Feast" which was published in Presbyterian Record magazine.

The Word Awards was established by the Word Guild to encourage the pursuit of excellence in the art, craft, practice and ministry of writing and help to raise the profile of Canadian writers who are Christian. The ultimate vision is to positively influence individuals—and ultimately the Canadian culture—through life-changing words that bring God’s message of hope.

The Word Guild is a growing community of more than 325 Canadian writers, editors, speakers, publishers, booksellers, librarians and other interested individuals who are Christian. From all parts of Canada and many denominational and cultural backgrounds, we affirm a common statement of faith and are united in our passion for the written word.

Congratulations again, Steve, Lisa, and Kimberley!

(You can read about last year's awards here.)