Bergen best again at book awards

Ben Sigurdson By: Ben Sigurdson Posted:

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For the fifth time in his career and the second year in a row, Winnipeg novelist David Bergen has won the top prize at the Manitoba Book Awards.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/06/2022 (1556 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For the fifth time in his career and the second year in a row, Winnipeg novelist David Bergen has won the top prize at the Manitoba Book Awards.

On Thursday, June 9, Bergen was announced as the winner of the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award for his slim novel Out of Mind, published by Goose Lane Editions in September 2021. It follows last year’s win for his story collection Here the Dark; Bergen also won for 1996’s A Year of Lesser, 2005’s The Time in Between and 2009’s The Retreat.

There were a few surprises in terms of winners in some of the other categories, including a pair of prizes that saw two authors share wins. Rowan McCandless’s memoir Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments and Jillian Horton’s We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing shared the Eileen McTavish Sykes award for best first book, while the Margaret Laurence Award for fiction was shared by Patricia Robertson for her story collection Hour of the Crab and Bob Armstrong for his western Prodigies.

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES David Bergen has won the top prize at the Manitoba Book Awards.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES David Bergen has won the top prize at the Manitoba Book Awards.

The top non-fiction prize, the Alexander Kennedy Isbister award for non-fiction, went to Dadibaajim: Returning Home Through Narrative, by Helen Olsen Agger, while the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book award was won by Seream for his book Mont-Blanc-Winnipeg Express. The Lansdowne prize for poetry was won by Joel Robert Ferguson for The Lost Cafeteria, while the Michael Van Rooy award for genre fiction was won by Catherine Macdonald for her novel So Many Windings.

Among other winners were Tasha Spillett-Sumner for her picture book I Sang You Down from the Stars as the best book for young people (younger category), while Chimwemwe Undi was named the winner of the John Hirsch Emerging Manitoba Writer award.

For the complete list of winners, see manitobabookawards.ca.

ben.sigurdson@freepress.mb.ca

Tasha Spillett-Sumner (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files)
Tasha Spillett-Sumner (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files)
Ben Sigurdson

Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer

Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.

In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

Ben Sigurdson

Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer

Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.

In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.

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