Graduating students and alumni from the University of King’s College’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program in Halifax are eligible for a new prize sponsored by Penguin Random House Canada and Westwood Creative Artists literary agency.

The Penguin Random House Canada MFA Prize is an annual award presented each May to the “best non-fiction work written by a student in their graduating year or by an alumnus of the King’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Nonfiction program.” Winners will receive $2,500 and an offer of representation from Westwood.

A jury – consisting of a PRHC non-fiction editor, a representative from the King’s School of Journalism or a published program graduate, and a Westwood agent – will select the winners.

A similar program exists in Vancouver, where students and alumni of the University of British Columbia’s creative-writing MFA program are eligible for the HarperCollins Publishers/UBC Prize, which offers winners literary representation by CookeMcDermid and a publishing contract with HarperCollins.