Turnstone nabs four High Plains nominations

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This article was published 30/06/2017 (3337 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s Turnstone Press is celebrating four nominations, for three of its books, in this year’s High Plains Book Awards. The awards, organized by the Billings, Mont., public library, honour books from seven northern plains and Rocky Mountain states and the three Prairie provinces.

Turnstone authors nominated this year were Sharron Arksey in the first book and women writer categories for The Waiting Place; Gene Walz in the creative non-fiction category for Happiness is a Rare Bird; and Wayne Arthurson in the indigenous writer category for The Traitors of Camp 133.

Canadian writers swept the indigenous and young adult nominations. David Alexander Robertson, for Will I See?, and Louise Halfe, for Burning in This Midnight Dream, were among indigenous award nominees. Young adult nominations featured a Saskatchewan sweep: Angela Counios and David Gane for Along Comes a Wolfe; Beth Goobie for The Pain Eater and David Poulsen for And Then the Sky Exploded.

The winners will be announced in October at the High Plains Book Fest.

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Greenpeace has taken its fight with Canada’s largest pulp and paper company to the centre of the American publishing world.

Publishers Weekly reports the environmental group had a booth at this year’s BookExpo publishing trade show in New York, where it lobbied writers and publishers to support its campaign against Montreal-based Resolute Forest Products (formerly Abitibi-Bowater).

Prior to BookExpo, Greenpeace issued a report taking the big five publishers to task for buying paper from Resolute, which it says contributes to the decline of the boreal forest and threatens the woodland caribou’s survival. Resolute has fought back against Greenpeace in recent years, launching court actions for libel in Canada and the U.S., alleging violations of the RICO Act in the American case.

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If you’re looking to celebrate Canada 150 between the covers, a Canadian literary website is compiling the list for you. The 49th Shelf website has a two-part entry compiling winners from provincial and regional book awards, with short synopses of winners in fiction, poetry, non-fiction, children and young-adult, among other categories.

While national awards season is in the fall, Canada’s provincial awards tend to take place from April to June. Find them at 49thshelf.com.

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Two debut novelists and a multi-genre award winner will read and discuss speculative fiction Wednesday as part of the regular Chiaroscuro Reading Series at McNally Robinson.

Winnipeg-born playwright and journalist David Demchuk will read from The Bone Mother, his debut novel, set along the Ukrainian-Romanian border, where the last of the mythical creatures of eastern Europe await a war that may eradicate them forever. Bess Hamilton, a recent arrival in Winnipeg from St. Mary’s, Ont., will read from her debut novel Like This You Keep Them Alive. Hamilton, a longtime lover of ghost and gothic literature, tells the story of two friends preparing to move on with their lives when, seven years after the First World War, one has her presumed-dead husband return from the war.

David Alexander Robertson, winner of multiple Manitoba awards for fiction, graphic novels and kids’ books (including The Evolution of Alice and When We Were Alone), joins the two debut novelists and host S.M Beiko. The event starts at 7 p.m.

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Writer and musician Vivek Shraya (She of the Mountains) has launched her own imprint with Vancouver’s Arsenal Pulp Press and is looking for an indigenous writer or writer of colour to mentor and publish.

Shraya’s imprint, VS Press, will publish the new writer’s work in 2019 with Arsenal Pulp. On her website, she says she’s looking for an unpublished 18- to 24-year-old writer, and will provide advice related to the writing process, seeking grants, touring and other aspects of the business.

The deadline for application is Sept. 15. Details are available at vivekshraya.com/vsbooks.

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