The Atlantic Book Awards Society has announced the shortlist of nominees for the 2020 Atlantic Book Awards. Consisting of thirteen different prizes ranging from Children’s Literature to Scholarly Writing, the shortlist contains 39 nominations for Atlantic Canadian authors, scholars and poets.
Notable about this year’s nominations are five double-award nominees: Terry Doyle for his debut novel DIG, Gemma Hickey for Almost Feral, Ami McKay for Daughter of Family G: A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate, Amy Spurway for her debut novel Crow, and former Halifax Poet Laureate Rebecca Thomas for I’m Finding My Talk.
Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction
- A Dark House and Other Stories by Ian Colford
(Vagrant Press – a Nimbus imprint) - DIG by Terry Doyle
(Breakwater Books) - Nosy White Woman by Martha Wilson
(Biblioasis)
Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature
- EveryBody’s Different on EveryBody Street by Sheree Fitch
(Nimbus Publishing) - A World Below by Wesley King
(Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books) - I’m Finding My Talk by Rebecca Thomas
(Nimbus Publishing)
Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association Best Atlantic-Published Book Award
Sponsored by Friesens Corporation
- Almost Feral by Gemma Hickey
(Breakwater Books) - I Lost My Talk by Rita Joe and I’m Finding My Talk by Rebecca Thomas (companion books), illustrated by Pauline Young
(Nimbus Publishing) - Land Beyond the Sea by Kevin Major
(Breakwater Books)
Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing
Sponsored by Marquis Book Printing
- Shaped by Silence: Stories from Inmates of the Good Shepherd Laundries and Reformatories by Rie Croll
(ISER Books) - The Wake: The Deadly Legacy of a Newfoundland Tsunami by Linden MacIntyre
(HarperCollins Canada) - Truth and Conviction: Donald Marshall Jr. and the Mi’kmaw Quest for Justice by L. Jane McMillan
(UBC Press)
Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing
- Listening for the Dead Bells by Marian Bruce
(Island Studies Press) - As British as the King: Lunenburg County During the First World War by Gerald Hallowell
(Nimbus Publishing) - Dangerous Enemy Sympathizers: Canadian Internment Camp B, 1940-1945 by Andrew Theobald Elliott
(Goose Lane Editions)
Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award
- Daughter of Family G: A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate by Ami McKay
(Knopf Canada) - Mayann Francis: An Honourable Life by The Honourable Dr. Mayann Francis
(Nimbus Publishing) - Hell and Damnation: A Sinner’s Guide to Eternal Torment by Marq de Villiers
(University of Regina Press)
Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award – Fiction
Presented by Boyne Clarke LLP
- The Difference by Marina Endicott
(Knopf Canada) - Broken Symmetry by Rosalie Osmond
(Nevermore Press) - Crow by Amy Spurway
(Goose Lane Editions)
J.M. Abraham Poetry Award
- Year of the Metal Rabbit by Tammy Armstrong
(Gaspereau Press) - Smallholding by Anne Compton
(Fitzhenry and Whiteside) - Belated Bris of the Brainsick by Lucas Crawford
(Nightwood Editions)
Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration
- Denise Gallagher, illustrator for Peg Bearskin: A Traditional Newfoundland Tale, written by adapted by Andy Jones and Philip Dinn from a story told by Mrs. Elizabeth Brewer
(Running the Goat Books) - Danielle Loranger, illustrator for Un géant dans la tête, written by Danielle Loranger
(Bouton D’or Acadie) - Sydney Smith, illustrator, for Small in the City, written by Sydney Smith
(Groundwood Books)
Margaret and John Savage First Book Award – Non-Fiction
Sponsored by Downtown Dartmouth Business Commission, Weed Man Maritimes, Heritage House Law Office, I Love Renovations and Simply Sage Solutions
- Almost Feral by Gemma Hickey
(Breakwater Books) - Wounded Hearts: Memories of the Halifax Protestant Orphans’ Home by Lois Legge
(Nimbus Publishing) - Transplanted: My Cystic Fibrosis Double-Lung Transplant Story by Allison Watson
(Nimbus Publishing)
Margaret and John Savage First Book Award – Fiction
Sponsored by the family of John and Margaret Savage and Royden Trainor
- DIG by Terry Doyle
(Breakwater Books) - Going Dutch: A Novel by James Gregor
(Simon & Schuster) - Crow by Amy Spurway
(Goose Lane Editions)
Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award – Non-Fiction
presented by the Kiwanis Club of Dartmouth
- Grandfather’s House: Returning to Cape Breton by Clive Doucet
(Nimbus Publishing) - Daughter of Family G: A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate by Ami McKay
(Knopf Canada) - Ghosts Within: Journeying Through PTSD by Garry Leech
(Fernwood Publishing)
Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award
- Crocuses Hatch from Snow by Jaime Burnet
(Vagrant Press – a Nimbus imprint) - The Innocents by Michael Crummey
(Doubleday Canada) - The Waiting Hours by Shandi Mitchell
(Viking Canada)
As is expected to be the case with most festivals, conferences, and events during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Atlantic Book Awards had taken their festival online. The festival will celebrate throughout the month of June, with the winners being announced on June 30, 2020.
For more information visit the Atlantic Book Awards Society at AtlatnicBookAwards.ca.