Local writers captured the attention of judges in the inaugural Whistler Select Writing Awards, a competition that garnered more than 80 submissions from writers around the world.

Whistler’s Stephen Vogler and Pemberton’s Katherine Fawcett each won $1,000 for top spot in the two non-fiction award categories, while three local writers were chosen for their short fiction. The winning writers will be recognized during this weekend’s Whistler Readers and Writers Festival.

“It’s exciting to see Whistler writers doing well in a competition that fielded submissions from writers around the world, and was adjudicated by a panel of reputed travel writers, filmmakers and television producers,” Stella Harvey, festival director, said in a statement.

Vogler was chosen by the judges as the winner of the Whistler Features award, designed to recognize excellence in travel writing. His piece, titled “The bomb shack ski patrol museum” was published in Mountain Life magazine’s winter 2007-’08 issue.

Fawcett won for “Sophie’s Cappuccino Bar” in the Whistler Untold category, which celebrates fresh perspectives and approaches.

The awards will be presented at the festival’s opening night event on Friday (Sept. 12) at the Whistler Public Library.

Fawcett was also named the third-prize winner for the Postcard Jam Award for her short fiction “Perfect Match.” Rebecca Wood Barrett won first for “Don’t leave…” and Feet Banks won second place for “Mice are Stupid.”

The three winning works of postcard-length fiction were to be published in today’s (Sept. 11) Pique Newsmagazine, and the three writers are invited to read their submissions, jam-style, at the Readers and Writers Festival’s reading event on Saturday night (Sept. 13).

The Whistler Select Writing Awards are presented by the Whistler Writers Group, the Vicious Circle, and were sponsored this year by Whistler Blackcomb, Watermark Communications and the Pique. Visit www.theviciouscircle.ca for more information on the awards and the festival.