The Writers' Union of Canada and John Gleed are pleased to announce that Charlotte Gill is the recipient of the $10,000 DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD for Ladykiller (Thomas Allen Publishers). Judged the best first English-language collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2005.

The Judges Greg Hollingshead, Dave Margoshes and Judith McCormack said of their first choice, "Ladykiller, is a startling collection of stories that explores some of the darker undercurrents of urban existence. Charlotte Gill's characters - reckless, restless, predatory, self-destructive and stuck in relationships and situations they don't know they've chosen - inhabit a bleak emotional landscape where being angry is the only way they can feel anything at all as they inch towards disaster, unable to stop themselves. Gill writes with skill, flare and a certain hard precision, producing mercurial prose. This is a striking debut.";

The DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD is given in celebration of the life of Danuta Gleed, a writer whose short fiction won several awards before her death in December 1996. Danuta Gleed's first collection of short fiction, One of the Chosen, was posthumously published by BuschekBooks. The Award is made possible through a generous donation from John Gleed; founder of JetForm Inc., in memory of his late wife, and is administered by The Writers' Union of Canada.

For more information, visit www.writersunion.ca.