04 Apr

Twenty-Seven Books Nominated for 2014 Atlantic Book Awards

The Atlantic Book Awards Society is pleased to announce the full shortlist for the ten different book prizes comprising the 2014 Atlantic Book Awards. The twenty-seven books up for awards represent the wide range of literary works being produced in Atlantic Canada—from cutting edge fiction to deeply researched books on Atlantic Canadian history, illustrated children’s picture books to novels written for teens and young adults.

Among the more familiar names on the shortlist are CBC media personality Stephanie Domet for her second novel, Fallsy Downsies (Invisible Publishing); mystery novelist, Anne Emery for Blood on a Saint (ECW Press); and illustrator Susan Tooke for Lasso the Wind: Aurélia’s Verses and Other Poems (Nimbus Publishing). Ruth Holmes Whitehead’s is short-listed for three awards for her work, Black Loyalists: Southern Settlers of Nova Scotia’s First Free Black Community and Acorn Press’s Ni’n na L’Nu: The Mi’kmaq of Prince Edward Island received two nominations.

The region’s book publishers are well represented on the shortlist with 20 of the 30 awards going to books by Atlantic publishers. Halifax’s Nimbus Publishing leads, having published six of the shortlisted titles, while Prince Edward Island’s Acorn Press has five nominations, and Formac Publishing, Goose Lane Editions and Roseway Publishing with two nominated titles each.

The Atlantic Book Awards Society announced the nominees last evening at a fundraising event that featured author Stephen Kimber hosting a conversation with fellow writers Anne Emery, Jon Tattrie and Stephen Laffoley.

The 2014 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival runs May 14-21 with free literary events. Winners of the 2014 Atlantic Book Awards will be announced at a special awards show on the last night of the week-long festival, Wednesday, May 21 at 7:00 p.m. at the Delta Prince Edward/PEI Convention Centre in Charlottetown, PEI as part of the planned PEI 2014 celebrations.

The Board of the non-profit Atlantic Book Awards Society is made up of representatives of the Atlantic Canadian book and writing community. The 2014 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Canada Book Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the sponsorship of the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association/Atlantic Books Today, University of Prince Edward Island, City of Charlottetown and the Province of Prince Edward Island.

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Media contact: Peggy Walt – peggy@culturalaffairs.ca (902) 422-5403

Web Site: www.atlanticbookawards.ca
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