It’s a big day for east coast authors and local bookworms alike: The 2023 Atlantic Book Awards dropped its list of nominees. The winners for each of the six prizes will be announced at a gala ceremony that is slotted to take place at Halifax Central Library on June 7. Here’s a lowdown of who’s in the running for what:
Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction
- Meghan Rose Allen, The Summer the School Burned Down (Indie-published)
- Bridget Canning, No One Knows About Us (Breakwater Books)
- Elaine McCluskey, Rafael Has Pretty Eyes (Goose Lane Editions)
Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature
- Nicola Davison, Decoding Dot Grey (Nimbus Publishing)
- Vicki Grant, Tell Me When You Feel Something (Penguin Random House)
- Jo Treggiari, Heartbreak Homes (Nimbus Publishing)
APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award
- Goose Lane Editions with the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Wabanaki Modern / Wabanaki Kiskukewey / Wabanaki Moderne by Emma Hassencahl-Perley & John Leroux
- Flanker Press, Operation Masonic by Helen C. Escott
- Boulder Books, Food, Culture, Place: Stories, Traditions, and Recipes of Newfoundland by Lori McCarthy and Marsha Tulk
Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing
- Carol Lynne D’Arcangelis, The Solidarity Encounter: Women, Activism, and Creating Non-Colonizing Relations (UBC Press)
- Mark David Turner, Inuit TakugatsaliuKatiget / On Inuit Cinema (Memorial University Press)
- Elizabeth Yeoman, Exactly What I Said: Translating Words and Worlds (University of Manitoba Press)
J. M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award
- Luke Hathaway, The Affirmations (Biblioasis)
- Nanci Lee, Hsin (Brick Books)
- Annick MacAskill, Shadow Blight (Gaspereau Press)
Related
Halifax poet Annick MacAskill wins the 2022 Governor General Award
Shadow Blight blends myth and grief in deeply felt results.
Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award
- K. R. Byggdin, Wonder World (Enfield & Wizenty)
- Bobbi French, The Good Women of Safe Harbour (HarperCollins)
- Lisa Moore, This Is How We Love (House of Anansi)
This article appears in Apr 1-30, 2023.