The Atlantic Book Awards Society is pleased to announce the full shortlist for the ten different book prizes comprising the 2014 Atlantic Book Awards. The twenty-seven books up for awards represent the wide range of literary works being produced in Atlantic Canada—from cutting edge fiction to deeply researched books on Atlantic Canadian history, illustrated children’s picture books to novels written for teens and young adults.
Among the more familiar names on the shortlist are CBC media personality Stephanie Domet for her second novel, Fallsy Downsies (Invisible Publishing); mystery novelist, Anne Emery for Blood on a Saint (ECW Press); and illustrator Susan Tooke for Lasso the Wind: Aurélia’s Verses and Other Poems (Nimbus Publishing). Ruth Holmes Whitehead’s is short-listed for three awards for her work, Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia’s First Free Black Community and Acorn Press’s Ni’n na L’Nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island received two nominations.
The region’s book publishers are well represented on the shortlist with 20 of the 30 awards going to books by Atlantic publishers. Halifax’s Nimbus Publishing leads, having published six of the shortlisted titles, while Prince Edward Island’s Acorn Press has five nominations, and Formac Publishing, Goose Lane Editions and Roseway Publishing with two nominated titles each.
The Atlantic Book Awards Society announced the nominees on April 3 at a fundraising event that featured author Stephen Kimber hosting a conversation with fellow writers Anne Emery, Jon Tattrie and Stephen Laffoley. The nominated children’s/YA books are listed below.
Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature
Nix Minus One
Written by Jill MacLean
Pajama Press
The Power of Harmony
Written by Jan L. Coates
Red Deer Press
The Stowaways
Written by Meghan Marentette
Illustrated by Dean Griffiths
Pajama Press
Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration
Lasso the Wind: Aurélia’s Verses and Other Poems
Illustrated by Susan Tooke
Written by George Elliott Clarke
Nimbus Publishing
Pisim Finds her Miskanow
Illustrated by Leonard Paul
Written by William Dumas
Portage & Main Press
Singily Skipping Along
Illustrated by Deanne Fitzpatrick
Written by Sheree Fitch
Nimbus Publishing
In addition to the awards listed above, which are specially for children’s books, Ghost Boy of MacKenzie House by Patti Larsen (Acorn Press) was shortlisted for the Prince Edward Island Book Award (fiction category) and Formac Publishing was nominated for the APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award (sponsored by Friesens Corporation), for Bluenose Adventure by Jacqueline Halsey with illustrations by Eric Orchard.
The 2014 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival runs May 14-21 with free literary events. Winners of the 2014 Atlantic Book Awards will be announced at a special awards show on the last night of the week-long festival, Wednesday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m. at the Delta Prince Edward/PEI Convention Centre in Charlottetown, PEI as part of the planned PEI 2014 celebrations.
The Board of the non-profit Atlantic Book Awards Society is made up of representatives of the Atlantic Canadian book and writing community. The 2014 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canada Book Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the sponsorship of the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association/Atlantic Books Today, University of Prince Edward Island, City of Charlottetown and the Province of Prince Edward Island.
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For more information, please contact:
Peggy Walt | peggy@culturalaffairs.ca | Tel: 902-422-5403
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