Manitoba’s best books up for 12 prizes at annual awards

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This article was published 15/03/2011 (5685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A HISTORY of Winnipeg’s contribution to the First World War has garnered the most nominations in this year’s Manitoba Book Awards.

Winnipeg’s Great War: A City Comes of Age by University of Manitoba librarian Jim Blanchard has received nods for the Alexander Isbister non-fiction prize, the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and the Mary Scorer Award for best book by a Manitoba publisher, the U of M Press.

Meanwhile, three novels, a memoir and a poetry collection, all by women, are in the running for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year.

Twelve prizes, worth about $30,000 in total, will be handed out at the Manitoba Book Awards April 17 at the Centre culturel franco-manitobain.

The nominations were released Monday by the event’s co-producers, the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers.

The novels A Cycle of the Moon by Uma Parameswaran, Curiosity by Joan Thomas and This Hidden Thing by Dora Dueck are up against the memoir Out of Grief Singing by Charlene Diehl, and the poetry collection Walking to Mojacar by Di Brandt, published by Turnstone Press.

David Bergen’s Giller Prize-nominated novel The Matter With Morris has been nominated for the Carol Shields award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.

The Thomas and Dueck novels also received nods for the Laurence prize, worth $3,500, as did Autumn, One Spring by Patti Grayson and Baldur’s Song by David Arnason.

Crime novelist Michael Van Rooy, who died in January, is nominated in the Carol Shields category for his final book, A Criminal to Remember.

 

 

 

Here is the complete list:

 

Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction

— Andy De Jarlis, by Joe MacIntosh (Great Plains Publications)

— Out of Grief, Singing, by Charlene Diehl (Signature Editions)

— When the Other Is Me, by Emma LaRocque (U of M Press)

— Winnipeg’s Great War, by Jim Blanchard (U of M Press)

 

The Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction

— Autumn, One Spring by Patti Grayson (Turnstone)

— Baldur’s Song, by David Arnason (Turnstone Press)

— Curiosity, by Joan Thomas (McClelland & Stewart)

— The Matter With Morris, by David Bergen (HarperCollins)

— This Hidden Thing, by Dora Dueck (CMU Press)

 

Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award

— Baldur’s Song, by David Arnason (Turnstone)

— A Criminal to Remember, by Michael Van Rooy (Turnstone)

— The Matter with Morris, by David Bergen (HarperCollins)

— The Winnipeg Art Gallery: A Guide to the Collections

— Winnipeg’s Great War, by Jim Blanchard (U of M Press)

 

McNally Robinson Book of the Year

— A Cycle of the Moon, by Uma Parameswaran (TSAR Publications)

— Curiosity, by Joan Thomas (McClelland & Stewart)

— Out of Grief, Singing, by Charlene Diehl (Signature Editions)

— This Hidden Thing, by Dora Dueck (CMU Press)

— Walking to Mojacar, by Di Brandt (Turnstone Press)

 

Aqua Books Lansdowne Prize for Poetry

— Attenuations of Force, by Lori Cayer (Frontenac House)

— Clockfire, by Jonathan Ball (Coach House Books)

— Hump, by Ariel Gordon (Palimpsest Press)

 

Best Illustrated Book of the Year

— The Imagination Manifesto — Book Two, by G.M.B. Chomichuk, with James Rewucki and John Toone, cover design and illustrations by G.M.B. Chomichuk (Alchemical Press)

— The Mosaic Village, by Russ Gourluck, cover design by Relish Design Studio (Great Plains Publications)

— Nanabosho and the Butterflies, by Joe McLellan and Matrine McLellan, illustrated by Jackie Traverse, design by Relish Design Studio (Pemmican Publications)

— Winnipeg Art Gallery: Guide to the Collections, edited by Stephen Borys, design by Lisa Friesen, photography by Ernest Mayer (WAG)

 

Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book

— Black Bottle Man, by Craig Russell (Great Plains)

— Broken Circle, by Theodore Fontaine (Heritage House)

— Gaze, by Keith Cadieux (Quattro Books)

— High Speed Crow, by Sheila McClarty (Oberon Press)

— Hump, by Ariel Gordon (Palimpsest Press)

 

John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer

Michelle Elrick

Ken Kowal

Kerry Ryan

 

Manuela Dias Book Design of the Year

— A Dog’s Breakfast, by Jess Young, design by Relish Design Studio (Great Plains)

— Maple Leaf Rag, by Kaie Kellough, cover design by Branden Douglas, design by Relish (Arbeiter Ring Publishing)

— Winnipeg Art Gallery: Guide to the Collections, edited by Stephen Borys, design by Lisa Friesen, photography by Ernest Mayer (WAG)

 

Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher

— Autumn, One Spring, by Patti Grayson (Turnstone)

— I Still Don’t Even Know You, by Michelle Berry (Turnstone)

— Walking to Mojâcar, by Di Brandt (Turnstone Press)

— Winnipeg’s Great War, by Jim Blanchard (University of Manitoba Press)

 

McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award — Older Category

— Black Bottle Man, by Craig Russell (Great Plains)

— Ortega, by Maureen Fergus (Kids Can Press)

— Queen of Hearts, by Martha Brooks (Groundwood Books)

— Winter Shadow, by Margaret Buffie (Tundra Books)

 

Le Prix littéraire Rue-Deschambault

— L’arbre aux coeurs, texte: France Adams, illustrations: Serge Salvador (Les Éditions des Plaines)

— La belle ordure, par Simone Chaput (Les Éditions du Blé)

— La forêt du langage, par Jean Chicoine (Les Éditions du Blé)

— Lointaines: nouvelles. par Lise Gaboury-Diallo (Les Éditions du Blé)