Writers Guild of Alberta
membership organizations for writers
The Writers' Guild of Alberta (WGA) was founded in 1980 as a non-profit organization for writers based in Alberta, Canada. It claims to be the largest provincial writers' organization in Canada, representing approximately 1,000 writers throughout the province.
Location and leadership
Its main office is based in Edmonton, with a southern office located in Calgary. The founding president was Rudy Wiebe. Past presidents include E. D. Blodgett, Joan Clark, Candas Jane Dorsey, Myrna Kostash, Alice Major, Suzette Mayr, George Melnyk, Darlene Quaife, Gloria Sawai, Fred Stenson (writer), Vern Thiessen and Aritha van Herk. A new president is nominated and elected at each year's AGM event. The president for the 2019–2021 year is Leslie Chivers.
Programs
The WGA provides professional services and development to established and emerging writers through its annual conference, mentorship program, writing retreats and youth programs. Its quarterly publication is WestWord magazine.
Awards
Created in 1982, the Alberta Literary Awards are awarded annually by the WGA to recognize and celebrate outstanding Alberta writing.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8038457. VIAF identifies the subject as 140643944. The Library of Congress control number is n90690775. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 2019, 2021 and 1982.
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This entry incorporates text from “Writers Guild of Alberta” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.