Atlantic Writing Awards Shortlisted Books
This year, from May 17 to 28, readers in Atlantic Canada have cause to celebrate. With the
announcement of the annual Atlantic Book Awards shortlist, our finest authors and their books
are front and centre, travelling throughout the region to give readings, signings and festive
book promotions.
Twenty-one remarkable books are in the running - in eight categories - for this year's
Atlantic Book Awards. The sheer diversity of imagination and subject matter is astonishing,
ranging from murder-mystery gumshoe to coal mine explosion to heritage home to Sahara desert
oasis. A new prize joins the roster in 2004. Administered by the Atlantic Publishers Marketing
Association and sponsored by printers Friesens and Hignells, this award
honours the Atlantic
Canadian publisher and the author of the book which contributes most to our understanding of
Atlantic Canada. The winners will be applauded at the Atlantic Book Awards Ceremony on Friday,
May 21, between 4 and 6 pm, in the Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Thereafter, the focus will shift to children's writing as the
Hackmatack Children's Choice Book Award nominees meet
their audiences in schools and libraries across Atlantic Canada from May 24 to 27 and conclude
with an awards ceremony in Moncton on May 28.
The awards are:
the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature,
the Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award,
the Best Atlantic Published Book Award,
the Atlantic Poetry Prize,
the Dartmouth Book Awards
for Fiction
and Non-Fiction,
the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-Fiction, and
the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize.
[Note to media: to download pictures from a PC computer, right
click on the link provided and select, "Save Target As". Do the same by
hovering mouse over book covers for colour jpgs. Mac users, click on the
link and hold, and select "Save As" from the menu that will appear.
Contact WFNS if you have any difficulty downloading a file, at talk@writers.ns.ca, and we will email
it to you.]
The 13th annual Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature, which is sponsored by
the Nova Scotia Library Association, joined forces with WFNS five years ago. The finalists are:
Squeezing the rock in his clenched fist made Reef feel powerful. And angry. It was easy, then,
to look down from the overpass and choose an anonymous target... Now Leeza Hemming's world has exploded,
her body twisted and broken from the car crash that nearly killed her. Facing months of torturous
rehabilitation, Leeza finds a friend in an unlikely hospital volunteer, a young man who looks like he
would rather be anywhere than in a hospital. Reaching out to one another in an unconscious need for
healing, neither Leeza nor Reef can guess that their fragile bond is based on an act of cruelty and hate.
Author of three books for young adults, Don Aker has worked as a classroom teacher for over twenty
years and has written and co-authored several educational texts. His YA books and short stories have won
several national competitions. He lives in Middleton with his wife and two teenaged daughters. |
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Kevin Major, Ann and Seamus
(Groundwood, 2003) ISBN 0-88899-561-X.
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In 1828, off Isle aux Morts, Newfoundland, seventeen-year-old Ann Harvey, her fisherman father
and younger brother came upon the wreck of the Despatch, an Irish immigrant ship originally
destined for Quebec City. In thick fog and fierce wind it had run aground and broken apart. Ann's courage
and strength at the oars of the rescue boat were largely responsible for the saving of more than 160
passengers stranded amid the raging storm. In a poetic and powerful retelling beautifully illustrated by
David Blackwood, Kevin Major portrays the
shy young woman thrust into extraordinary circumstances, and the young Irishman, Seamus, who had set sail
with hopes of a new life in America.
Kevin Major is the author of ten novels for young people and adults. His books have been published
in several languages and include Hold Fast (Hans Christian Andersen Honour List and winner of the
Governor General's Award, Canadian Library Association Award and the Ruth Schwartz Award), Far From
Shore (Canadian Young Adult Book Award) and The House of Wooden Santas (Mr. Christie's Book
Award and Ann Connor Brimer Award). He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland. |
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Janet McNaughton, An Earthly Knight
(HarperCollins, 2003) ISBN 0-00-639188-5.
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The year is 1162. Sixteen-year-old Lady Jeanette Avenel has always enjoyed her freedom as
second daughter of a minor Norman nobleman in Teviotdale, Scotland. But Jenny is suddenly thrust into the
role of eldest daughter after her sister, Isabel, disgraces the family by running away with a suitor
who later betrays her. While Jenny worries about her sister's future, she is chosen as a potential bride for
William de Warenne, brother and heir of the King of Scotland. Soon Jenny is swept up in a world of
formal banquets and jousting tournaments, when she meets Tam Lin, a mysterious young man rumoured to have
been kidnapped by fairies. Tam's past holds a secret that threatens to endanger everyone close to him -
including Jenny.
Janet McNaughton is the author of To Dance at the Palais Royale and Make or Break Spring,
both multi-award winners. The Secret Under My Skin also garnered numerous awards, including the
Ruth Schwartz Award, the Mr. Christie's Book Award and the Ann Connor Brimer Award. She lives in St. John's,
Newfoundland, with her family. |
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The Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award joined the Atlantic Writing Awards
three years ago. The finalists are:
Greg Cook, One Heart, One Way. Alden Nowlan: A Writer's Life
(Pottersfield Press, 2003) ISBN 1-895900-59-X.
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Born near Windsor, NS, Alden Nowlan overcame the obstacles of poverty and inadequate education
to become one of the most celebrated authors in Canada. During the fifty years of his life, Nowlan gained
respect and recognition as a poet, journalist and novelist, with 25 published books and three plays. His
writing earned him two honourary degrees and many awards, including a Guggenheim fellowship and the 1968
Governor General's Award for Poetry. That same year, Nowlan was appointed writer in residence at The
University of New Brunswick, a position he filled until his death in 1983.
Gregory M. Cook is the author of five books of poetry and was a close friend of Nowlan's during the
final 20 years of his life. A graduate of Acadia, Cook has worked as a preacher, reporter, dramatist,
freelance journalist and executive director of WFNS. He now lives in Saint John, NB. |
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David Adams Richards, River of the Brokenhearted
(Doubleday Canada, 2003) ISBN 0-385-65888-5.
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In the 1920s, Janie McLeary and George King run one of the first movie theatres in the
Maritimes. The marriage of the young Irish Catholic woman to an older English man is thought scandalous,
but they work happily together, playing music to accompany the films. When George succumbs to illness and
dies, leaving Janie with one young child and another on the way, the unscrupulous Joey Elias tries to take
over the business. Narrated by her grandson, this is a many-layered epic about rivalries, the abuse of power
and what weak people will do for love.
Born in 1950 in Newcastle, New Brunswick, David Adams Richards is the author of Nights Below Station
Street and the memoir Lines on the Water, both winners of the Governor General's Award. His
2000 novel Mercy Among the Children was nominated for the Governor General's Award and the Trillium
Award, and won the prestigious Giller Prize. He won the Raddall in 1994 for For Those Who Hunt the
Wounded Down. |
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Shortlisted for the inaugural Best Atlantic Published Book are:
Stephen Archibald and Sheila Stevenson, Heritage Houses of Nova Scotia
(Formac, 2003) ISBN 0-88780-601-5.
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Nova Scotia has a rich heritage of houses dating from the 1700s. Here, the best examples of
every important house style over the past 250 years are brought together in full colour. The authors have
travelled to all parts of the province to select the finest in architectural heritage. Most of these
buildings are accessible to the public and some have been carefully restored, allowing readers to revisit
the way people lived in Nova Scotia's past. |
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Read how each house style reached Nova Scotia and discover how to identify not only its characteristic
features but variants unique to the province. The authors also explain how new technologies have affected
architectural style, and how the most available building material - wood - was used for houses designed
to be constructed of brick, stone and mortar.
Covers:
archibaldbw.tif (b/w) ;
archibaldc.tif (colour).
More information:
Formac's book info.
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Michael Hennessey, The Betrayer
(Acorn Press, 2003) ISBN 1-894838-03-3.
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In 1941, two Prince Edward Island men were hanged for the murder of a Charlottetown shopkeeper.
The two convicted met their deaths still vowing that a third man had committed the murder.
Inspired by this dramatic historical crime and the 'third man theory,' The Betrayer conjures the
fictional life of this third man in an intimate psychological profile of someone who, quite literally, gets
away with murder. Told from the compelling viewpoint of its central character, newspaperman Hugh Michael
"Mickey" Casey, The Betrayer takes the reader down dark corridors of Charlottetown's recent past to
trace the origins of a murderer and the emotional aftermath of a brutal act.
Michael Hennessey's previous publications include non-fiction books and two collections of
short stories, An Arch for the King and My Broken Hero.
An accomplished playwright, Hennessey's plays have been produced on PEI and other parts of
Canada and broadcast on CBC Radio. The Betrayer is his first novel. |
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Beth Ryan, What is Invisible
(Killick Press, 2003) ISBN 1-894294-61-0.
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In her debut collection of uncompromising short stories, Beth Ryan has created characters
that bristle with truth. Set in St. John's, these stories overflow with intimate, convincing details
and change in ways readers can't predict.
Beth Ryan lives and writes in St. John's, Newfoundland. A graduate of Memorial University and
Ryerson Polytechnical University, she has made her living as a writer since 1987, working in both journalism
and communications. Her stories have been broadcast on CBC Radio and have appeared in several publications,
and she has won awards in the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Competition and the Atlantic
Writing Competition. Ryan has taught fiction writing to young people and reviews local books for CBC Radio. |
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The finalists for the 7th annual Atlantic Poetry Prize are:
Brian Bartlett's poetry fuses ideas, events and emotions with subterranean dreams, compressing
them until they turn to diamond. His passion for the physical is rooted in the spiritual, which in turn
strengthens the grip of his poems on the natural world. Whether he is writing about a jazz drummer or a
foot doctor, a vireo or a seal, a rundown hotel or an Adirondack mountain, humour and music enliven
his lines.
One of Canada's leading poets, Brian Bartlett grew up in New Brunswick, lived for many years in Montreal,
and has taught creative writing at Saint Mary's University in Halifax since 1990. He has published three
chapbooks and four full-length collections, most recently The Afterlife of Trees. Wanting the
Day brings together the most dramatic poems from these volumes, including winners of the
Malahat Review Long Poem Prize and the Petra Kenney Poetry Competition. |
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The Brevity of Red charts the landscapes of grief and love. In the midst of loss,
MacLean muses on the sky, on trees and birds, and on the names of flowers, with a versatile tongue.
From mitochondria to beluga whales to the sound of a Tibetan singing bowl, this book details a broad
sweep of experience with meticulous clemency and wisdom.
Born in England in 1941, Jill MacLean has made her home in all three Maritime provinces and now
lives in Winnipeg. After receiving
her Bachelor of Science, she worked at the Fisheries Research Board in Halifax, in Sydney City Hospital
and in the biology department of Mount Allison University. She completed a Masters in Theological Studies
at the Atlantic School of Theology and began writing poetry. Her work has appeared in The Antigonish
Review, CV2, Event, The Fiddlehead, Grain, The Malahat Review, Pottersfield Portfolio, Prairie Fire,
Prism International and TickleAce. This is her first collection. |
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Sue Sinclair, Mortal Arguments
(Brick Books, 2003) ISBN 1-894078-29-2.
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What is beauty? Why does it matter to us? How can we allow it to matter when our daily lives
are sustained by global violence and injustice?
In her second collection, Sue Sinclair offers us
meditations of luminous perception and intelligence which will remind readers by turns of Rilke and Heine:
urgent, sorrowing, ecstatic.
Sue Sinclair has published poetry and reviews in journals across Canada. Her first book of poems,
Secrets of Weather & Hope (Brick Books, 2001), was shortlisted for the 2002 Gerald Lampert Award.
Sinclair grew up in Newfoundland and now lives in Toronto. |
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The Dartmouth Book Awards Steering Committee joined WFNS and the NS Library Association five years
ago to plan the Atlantic Book Festival. Shortlisted for the Dartmouth Book Awards for fiction and
non-fiction are:
Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)
Dream of the Dove is the uncompromising story of a Nova Scotia sea captain's life. James
Allen Graham witnesses both the apex and decline of the age of sail. He first goes to sea in the spring of
1860, just in time to find himself in the midst of the American Civil War. At 55, he captains the most
beautiful ship ever to grace the eastern seaboard. At 60, he is down on his luck, living at the Seaman's
Mission on State Street in New York and working as a night watchman on the East River docks. At 65, he is
alone, nearly blind and trying to make sense of his life and the final voyage of the Dove.
Bruce Graham has been described as one of the most dynamic writers and speakers in Canada. His
first novel was The Parrsboro Boxing Club. He anchored the ATV News in Halifax for a
decade, where his nightly television commentaries earned him the Atlantic Journalism Award, and later
became the first news director at MITV (now Global) television. He lives in Southwest Hants County, Nova Scotia. |
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Inspired in part by the Westray mining disaster, Leo McKay Jr.'s bestselling novel is set
in a small Nova Scotia town, where a family is
changed forever after a devastating mining accident claims the lives of twenty-six men. As the story
shifts back and forth in time and between characters, readers meet brothers Ziv and Arvel Burrows,
drawn to the mine for different reasons; their father, a former union organizer; Ziv's ex-girlfriend,
now living in Japan; and Arvel's wife, who hopes for a better life for herself in the city. In the
aftermath of the explosion, and as the investigation into its causes unfolds, the members of the
Burrows family are forced to confront each other - and themselves - bringing the novel to its moving
and redemptive conclusion.
Leo McKay Jr.'s fiction debut was a collection of short stories, Like This, which was a
finalist for The Giller Prize. His stories have been published in many Canadian literary magazines, and
he is a former editor of PRISM international. His first novel, Twenty-Six was a highly
acclaimed national bestseller. McKay teaches high school in Truro, Nova Scotia, and lives with his wife
and three children in the nearby village of Maitland. |
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Heidi Priesnitz, A Darker Light
(Dundurn Press, 2003) ISBN 1-55002-459-0.
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As a photographer for an upscale travel magazine, Sara is able to combine her passion for
photography with a successful career. When diagnosed with a debilitating eye condition, her ideal world
is thrown out of focus, forcing her to re-evaluate her future. As her vision begins to deteriorate, she
faces the devastating prospect of having to give up both her career and her passion.
Hoping to avoid surgery, Sara is introduced to Sitara - an acupuncturist troubled by doubts and family
scars. As their friendship develops, the two women search for ways to cope with the past and the present.
Heidi Priesnitz is a writer and graphic designer living in Wolfville. Her previous work includes a
collection of short stories, Tangled with Leaves, and a novel, Drifting. Heidi's work has
appeared in several literary journals and was broadcast on CBC Radio. |
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Dartmouth Book Award (Non-Fiction)
James D. Frost, Merchant Princes
(Lorimer, 2003) ISBN 1-55028-803-2.
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Merchant Princes tells the tale of an extraordinary family of merchants and
entrepreneurs, beginning in 1810 when William Stairs opened a small general store on the Halifax
waterfront and following the Stairs family saga through sugar refining, banking, steel making, rope
manufacturing and the world's leading manufacturer of skates. The Stairs family was also active in
the back rooms of politics, for generations. Through this family history, Frost sheds new light on
many aspects of Nova Scotia's business and political history.
James D. Frost, a specialist in marine transportation, works as a researcher and consultant.
Educated at McGill, Queen's and Saint Mary's Universities, he is an authority on the business and
economic history of the Maritime provinces. A Research Associate at Gorsebrook Research Institute,
he lives in Halifax. |
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Elizabeth Pacey, Miracle on Brunswick Street
(Nimbus Publishing, 2003) ISBN 1-55109-464-9.
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This book tells the story of the first group of German-speaking immigrants to Canada and of
the two remarkable churches they built on Brunswick Street in Halifax. German Lutherans arrived 250 years
ago and established a community centred on the Spartan Little Dutch Church. Anglican Loyalists expanded
the congregation. In 1800 parishioners built the elegant, classical St. George's Church, one of the
great round buildings of the world. The parish took leading roles in helping victims of the Titanic disaster
and the Halifax Explosion, and in entertaining troops during both World Wars. Today these two National
Historic Sites stand as witnesses to the ingenuity and faith of a band of German pioneers and their
successors.
Elizabeth Pacey is the author of 10 books, including Halifax Citadel, Georgian Halifax, Historic
Halifax and Landmarks: Historic Buildings of Nova Scotia, which won the 1995 Evelyn Richardson
Award. She has received an honorary doctorate and four national heritage awards.
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Nominated for the 27th annual Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-Fiction are:
Billy Budge, Memoirs of a Lightkeeper's Son
(Pottersfield Press, 2003) ISBN 1-895900-61-1.
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In 1955, William (Billy) G. Budge's father accepted the position of lighthouse keeper on St.
Paul Island, a rugged and forlorn mountain in the sea. Positioned at the entrance to the Gulf of St.
Lawrence between Cape Breton and Newfoundland, this island suffers violent gales, snowstorms and thick
fog. Early seafarers called it the "Graveyard of the Gulf" due to the vast numbers of ships lost along
its shores. Billy moved there with his parents and younger sister in September of 1955. For the next
five years they lived at the southwest light station in almost total isolation. His family quickly learned
to cope in a world without neighbours, electricity, schools, or any sports activities. They lived off the
land – hunting ducks along the coast, berry picking, and jigging cod on the sea.
Billy Budge was a telephone technician with Maritime Tel and Tel until his retirement in 1998. He is
married, has three children and resides in Ingonish, Nova Scotia. This is his first book. |
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Night Voices tells the little-known story of the Jewish idealists of Poland, Holocaust
survivors who committed themselves to build a communist state in the belief that it would create a just
society. Their hopes were shattered by the Stalinist paranoia and brutality of the post-war years, and by
government-sponsored anti-Semitism. In 1968, the communist leadership, through a campaign of intimidation
and harassment, set about expelling the remains of Poland's Jewish population. Built on the interwoven
memories of four people – their lives, loves, dreams, and despair – Night Voices is a testimony
both to the strength of the human spirit and to our capacity for self-delusion.
Heather Laskey, a freelance journalist, is the author of The Children of the Poor Clares: The Story
of an Irish Orphanage. She lives in Halifax. |
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Harry Thurston, Island of the Blessed: the Secrets of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis
(Doubleday Canada, 2003) ISBN 0-385-25969-7.
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With its pyramids, mummies and pharaohs, the Egyptian Nile has long been the Egypt of popular
imagination. Yet, not far away in the Western Desert, where decades might pass between rains, and showers
often evaporate before they hit the ground, lies the "other Egypt" where a story as old as the sands has
lain hidden for millennia. Harry Thurston follows an international team of archeologists as they sift the
Sahara to unlock the
secrets of the "everlasting oasis," Dakhleh, a tiny island of green that has been home to humans for
nearly half a million years. Combining elements of adventure travelogue and scientific detective story,
Island of the Blessed explores the fragile balance between an over-reaching humanity and its
environment, and unveils a fascinating chapter of human history.
Harry Thurston is among Canada's premiere writers and journalists. The author of twelve books, he has
published feature articles for more than thirty leading magazines, including Audubon, Equinox, and
National Geographic. He won the Richardson in 1991 for Tidal Life and again in 1997 for
The Nature of Shorebirds. He lives in Amherst. |
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The Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, which debuted in 1991 as a $1,000 prize,
has grown to $10,000, and is the largest writing prize in Atlantic Canada. This year's nominees are:
Kenneth J. Harvey, The Town That Forgot How to Breathe
(Raincoast Books, 2003) ISBN 1-55192-592-3.
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The outport of Bareneed, Newfoundland, is home to a vivid cast of characters who, one by one,
come down with a mysterious breathing disorder. As the illness progresses, its victims fall into silence
and are tormented by dark thoughts and urges. Meanwhile, the once-thriving cod fishery has been shut down
and people find their nets full of bizarre creatures - the incarnations of legendary beasts and characters
from the village's old tales. One oldtimer named Eileen Laracy gradually makes the connection: the act of
breathing is no longer automatic for the inhabitants of Bareneed - out of place and time, they've lost a
fundamental part of their identity.
Kenneth J. Harvey is the author of several books, including Brud, which was
shortlisted for the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award, and Directions for an
Opened Body, which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers Prize. He lives in
Newfoundland. |
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The winners will be announced at the Atlantic Writing Awards Ceremony, between 4 and
6 pm, on Friday, May 21, 2004 at Alderney Landing Theatre, 2 Ochterloney Street, Dartmouth, Nova
Scotia. Shortlisted books are available at good bookstores throughout the region and the
country, and readings by the nominees will be taking place in the week leading up to the
Awards Gala.
For further information, contact:
Jane Buss/Monika Sormova, WFNS
Ph: (902) 423-8116
Fax: (902) 422-0881
Email: talk@writers.ns.ca
Thanks to our award sponsors:
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