About us
The Atlantic Book Awards Society
(ABAS)
The Atlantic Book Awards Festival is overseen by the Atlantic Book Awards Society, a volunteer board, and organized by the Atlantic Book Awards Festival coordinator. In official parlance, we’re a registered, nonprofit organization with the mandate “to promote and acknowledge excellence in Atlantic Canadian writing and book publishing through an annual awards ceremony and related events.” In other words, we’re readers with a special love of books from our corner of the world.
With representation from all four Atlantic provinces, the Atlantic Book Awards Society board meets virtually each month. We are readers primarily, but also arts administrators, book sellers, publishers, festival organizers, teachers, and writers.
For the past few years, the festival has been based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. But as we seek more stable funding, we hope to rotate our festival to the other Atlantic provinces, as we did in the past.
Current Board Members
(2025-2026)
President
Marilyn Smulders
Vice-President
Brian Rendell
Treasurer
Christie Mulchahy
Recording Secretary
Naomi McKinnon
Member at Large (NS)
Joan McMullin (representing Dartmouth Book Awards)
Member at Large (NS)
Oriana Duinker (representing Writers Federation of Nova Scotia)
Member at Large (NS)
Rebecca Silver Slayter (representing Cabot Trail Writers Festival)
Member at Large (NS)
Joel Burton
Member at Large (NS)
Aren A. Morris
Member at Large (NB)
Danielle LeBlanc (representing Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association)
Member at Large (PEI)
Simon Lloyd
Member at Large (NL)
Marnie Parsons
2025 Festival Marketing and Communications Coordinator
Lee-Anne Poole