Established by philanthropist Yosef Wosk in 2017 and supported by the Yosef Wosk Family Foundation, the award celebrates the distinguished career of Vancouver author, commentator and arts critic Max Wyman. Its initial focus was on British Columbia writers; it became a national award in 2025. The winner receives a cash prize of $5,000 and a gold and emerald pin created by Vancouver artist Robert Chaplin.
A NOTE FROM YOSEF WOSK:
The award was established to catalyze the art of creative commentary. As our society matures, feedback must also deepen and respond to inspired offerings. This Canada-wide award is presented to a writer for work of discernment and compelling style that raises the level of cultural conversation and, ultimately, human creativity.
The award is named in honour of Max Wyman, O.C., D.Litt. (hon). He is a cultural paragon whose clear vision, incisive writing and fearless voice have both grounded and encouraged us. From his genesis in England (b. May 14, 1939) to his half-century here in British Columbia he has been an unparalleled personality, a cultural critic and midwife of creativity whose influence is sure to be modelled by future generations.
A NOTE FROM MAX WYMAN:
It has been fashionable recently for some elements of the on-line commentariat to lament that modern society’s wholesale public embrace of social media has effectively eradicated the role of the arts and culture critic/commentator—and for proof, we simply need to look at the vastly diminished presence of traditional criticism in the legacy media.
I can’t and won’t argue with the evidence. The job I did for much of my life has been rendered—is thought to have been rendered—redundant by the gift that the Internet has bestowed: universal access to an unprecedented treasury of creative expression, and the simultaneous ability for everyone to circulate their views about it, instantly, to the world, in 140 characters on X or ten seconds on TikTok. Reductionist thinking in a virtual nutshell.
But I would argue that, far from becoming an inconvenient irrelevance, informed and insightful cultural criticism and commentary it is more important than ever. The democratization of individual access to public commentary was certainly overdue, for all the socio-cultural reasons we are familiar with. I welcome the freedom of personal expression it provides to many millions of thinking, feeling human beings who might otherwise be mute.
But we still need people who will enhance public understanding and appreciation of creative inquiry, and stimulate critical thinking, even skepticism, in our interpretation of the world around us. The real challenge facing cultural commentary is how to find ways to change to meet the changing circumstances in the cultural arena itself.
It is increasingly clear that classification of the arts into genres is not only out of date but has diminishing relevance. Music, dance, theatre, mime, film, video … everything is endlessly cross-referential. Nothing is static, no previous assumptions about disciplinary borders can be trusted. (This has always been true, to a degree, in the arts, but modern technologies and the relaxation of socio-cultural boundaries have intensified the cross-fertilization process.)
The great and exciting opportunity available to anyone writing cultural commentary today lies in finding ways to get a grip on that seething complexity, and new ways to explore and contextualize it in ways that will interest and provoke audiences, both established and new … amplifying pleasure, encouraging discernment, deepening appreciation.
That process is what this award hopes to foster, recognize and honour.
CRITERIA AND SELECTION PROCESS
Admissible formats include cultural commentary in print, on air and on-line. Candidates must be either Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. A selection panel chooses the award recipients. Neither applications nor nominations are accepted as part of the selection process.