Melanie Seibert, meet Pierre Berton

Melanie Seibert (writing) has been selected for the Berton House Writers' Retreat in Dawson City, Yukon. Only four writers a year are chosen for this coveted three-month residency at the childhood home of iconic author Pierre Berton. Seibert’s term runs April to June 2013. A UVic MFA alumna who and was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for best master’s thesis, her first book, Deepwater Vee (which charts some of Canada’s most threatened rivers), was a finalist for the 2010 Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. For more than 10 years, Seibert has worked as a guide on wilderness rivers across the north from Alaska to Nunavut, making her a natural for this remote retreat.