Alea is a children’s illustrator living and working in England. She was born in the UK and her family roots are from Barbados. She loves creating whimsical scenes that are filled with plant life, texture, and bursts of colour! Her favorite mediums to work with are mechanical pencils, watercolor crayons, and digital brushes. Marley’s publishing clients are Macmillan, Tundra, Abrams, Little Bee, Harper Collins and Walker Books.

Here’s more on This is Ruby:

Ruby is curious about her world and has big ideas about how it works. A delightful picture book celebration of science and creativity, and a welcome companion to Sara O’Leary’s beloved This Is Sadie. Ruby is a little girl with a sense of curiosity and enthusiasm that’s too big to contain! Ruby is always busy –– she loves to make things, watch things grow and figure out how things work, with her dog Teddy by her side. And Ruby has lots of ideas about what she wants to be: maybe an animal conservationist? Or an archaeologist? She’s great at excavating (i.e. digging holes). Or maybe an inventor? She’s already invented a book with smells instead of words (so dogs can read it) and a time machine (the dinosaurs did have feathers after all, and the future is looking wild). This is Ruby, and this is her world.

Alea’s illustrations in This is Ruby are wonderfully playful at the same time as they are incredibly skilled, a multifaceted talent paralleled only by Ruby herself. Here’s what the jury had to say about Alea’s illustrations for This is Ruby:

“Every page has something different. This is a very appealing, special book with dynamic illustrations that changed spread to spread. The vibrant and dynamic work is sweet and simple and Ruby’s spunk shines.”

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Alyda is the author of Dust or Fire, Berlinale Erotik, and Poisonous If Eaten Raw. Her poetry has appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Riddle Fence, the Malahat Review, Contemporary Verse 2, and the Fiddlehead. She teaches at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax.

In this experimental long poem sequence (Poisonous if Eaten Raw), Faber transforms the portrait poem into runic shapes, ice shelved, sculpted, louvered on a winter shoreline. Twenty years after her mother’s death, Faber untethers herself from the mother she thinks she knows with wild analogies: depicting her mother variously as King Lear’s Kent, a Camperdown elm, a black-capped chickadee, Neil Peart, Pope Innocent X, and a funnel spider. While embodying the passionate relationship between mother and daughter, Faber’s poems also expose the thorn in the flesh — the inability of mother and daughter to give each other what they most want to give. Endlessly discovered, yet ultimately unknowable, the poet’s mother is complex, mystifying, and unwavering: courageous in her decision to leave all that she knew behind; bewildering in her fidelity to a damaging marriage; steadfast in her devotion to a God who is at once adamant and the source of ephemeral beauty.

About Poisonous if Eaten Raw, the jury said: 

“What shape does the mother- / daughter passion assume / after the death of the mother?” This is the question at the heart of Alyda Faber’s transformative collection, Poisonous if Eaten Raw. With language that emerges from the underneath of things, Faber’s surreal portraits/possibilities are fraught with an ontological yearning for connection. With imaginative daring, these poems reach across self and other, offering new ways to think about beauty and grief “like the rain, in all the ways it falls.”

Original photography by Nicola Davison.

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Ardath is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Mount Allison University. She was a frontline youth worker for many years in organizations such as Leave Out ViolencE and Laing House and has more than a decade of experience conducting arts-based and participatory action research with youth with lived experience of mental illness. She was part of an adolescent psychiatry research and knowledge translation team at the IWK Health Centre and conducted a long-term study with survivors of inpatient care and incarceration who live with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. She is interested in how lived experiences with homophobia, white supremacy and settler colonialism manifest in self-harm, anxiety, and long-term, chronic mental health challenges for young people. She is currently the principal investigator on a SSRHC grant that explores transformative justice approaches for high-risk family violence and has a forthcoming book on abolition and intimate partner homicide. She is a past director on the board of the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project and a current board member of Avalon Sexual Assault Centre in Halifax.

Here’s a closer look at her award-winning book, Insurgent Love:

Domestic homicide is violence that strikes within our most intimate relations. The most common strategy for addressing this kind of transgression relies on policing and prisons. But through examining commonly accepted typologies of high-risk intimate partner violence, Ardath Whynacht shows that policing can be understood as part of the same root problem as the violence it seeks to mend and provides an abolitionist frame for the most dangerous forms of intimate partner violence. This book illustrates that the origins of both the carceral state and toxic masculinity are situated in settler colonialism and racial capitalism and sees police homicide and domestic homicide as akin. Describing an experience of domestic homicide in her community and providing a deeply personal analysis of some of the most recent cases of homicide in Canada, the author inhabits the complexity of seeking abolitionist justice. Insurgent Love traces the major risk factors for domestic homicide within the structures of racial capitalism and suggests transformative, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, feminist approaches for safety, prevention and justice.

Here’s what the jury has to say about Insurgent Love: Abolition and Domestic Homicide:

“This book offers a level of analysis that is readable, if somewhat arresting. Insurgent Love confronts its immediate subject matter – the most extreme forms of domestic violence – normally as a principally sociocultural and political phenomenon, rather than the actions of a warped individual psychopathy. This book engages contemporary debates to make its arguments.”

Original photography by Nicola Davison.

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Chad has been in love with words since he attempted his first novel on a typewriter in the sixth grade. He has worked as a newspaper reporter, communications advisor, freelance writer, part-time journalism instructor, and parenting columnist. His debut novel Thanks a Lot, Universe was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and a best middle grade book of 2021 by the School Library Journal, New York Public Library, and Canadian Children’s Book Centre. His second book, Let the Monster Out, released in May 2022. A proud descendant of the historic African Nova Scotian community of Lucasville, he lives with his family in Nova Scotia. He enjoys coaching basketball, and he’s rarely far from a cup of tea.

Here’s a bit on Thanks a Lot, Universe, which follows two middle schoolers, Brian and Ezra, as they try to understand each other and themselves:

Brian has always been anxious, whether at home or in class or on the basketball court. His dad tries to get him to stand up for himself, and his mom helps as much as she can, but after he and his brother are placed in foster care, Brian starts having panic attacks. And he doesn’t know if things will ever be “normal” again… Ezra’s always been popular. He’s friends with most of the kids on his basketball team—even Brian, who usually keeps to himself. But now, some of his friends have been acting differently, and Brian seems to be pulling away. Ezra wants to help, but he worries if he’s too nice to Brian, his friends will realize he has a crush on him… But when Brian and his brother run away, Ezra has no choice but to take the leap and reach out. Both boys have to decide if they’re willing to risk sharing parts of themselves they’d rather hide. But if they can be brave, they might just find the best in themselves—and in each other.

Here’s what the jury had to say about Thanks A Lot Universe: 

“From a title that’s open to more than one interpretation to a final page with just enough loose ends, Thanks a Lot, Universe is a book you can’t put down. How did Chad Lucas get the voices of two 13-year-old boys pitch-perfect and completely distinct? How did he slip in so easily that one of these boys is white and the other black? How did he deal in depth with mental illness, the underground economy, the risks of coming out gay, social anxiety, and racism, yet at the same time write a novel imbued with the power of kindness and laugh-out-loud, guy-humour? Bullies and basketballs, guitars and girls, parents and panic attacks, they’re all there. And the kicker? This is Chad Lucas’s debut novel.”

Original photography by Nicola Davis.

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David is a writer and educator from Halifax, NS with a PhD from Western University. Over the years, his work has won several esteemed awards, including the CBC Short Story Prize and The Walrus Poetry Prize. His first work of fiction, Peninsula Sinking, received the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award––now the Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)––and was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction.

From refinery operators to long term care nurses, dishwashers to preppers to hockey enforcers, Chemical Valley’s compassionate and carefully wrought stories cultivate rich emotional worlds in and through the dankness of our bio-chemical animacy. Full-hearted, laced throughout with bruised optimism and sincere appreciation of the profound beauty of our wilted, wheezing world, Chemical Valley doesn’t shy away from urgent modern questions—the distribution of toxicity, environmental racism, the place of technoculture in this ecological spasm—but grounds these anxieties in the vivid and often humorous intricacies of its characters’ lives. Swamp-wrought and heartfelt, these stories run wild with vital energy, tilt and teeter into crazed and delirious loves.

Here’s what the jurors had to say about Chemical Valley:

“In this courageous collection David Huebert holds little back as he weaves superbly crafted stories of the dark, difficult, and gritty reality of being human. Whether it be the destructive impact we have on our environment, each other, or ourselves, Huebert tackles this challenge with intelligence and compassion, both in his language and style and in the empathy with which he portrays the human experience. The intertwining of ugliness and beauty, metallic cold and human warmth, and destruction and hope, creates a visceral, hopeful, and rewarding experience for the reader.”

Photography by Nicola Davis.

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Creating Short Fiction Collections

Join acclaimed short story writer Alexander MacLeod (Light Lifting, Animal Person) in conversation with the nominees for the award named for his father, the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction: David Huebert (Chemical Valley), Amber McMillan (The Running Trees), and 

Claire Wilkshire (The Love Olympics). Learn more about the intricacies of their characters’ lives as they weave their way in and out of these collections of short fiction. 

Presented in partnership with the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia.

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Small Town Mysteries 

Sit it on storytelling with nominees of the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Fiction). Alexandra Harrington (The Last Time I Saw Her), C. S. Porter (Beneath Her Skin), and Colin Sweets Arsenault (Short Mercy) have all written riveting debut novels rife with mystery. Learn how small towns on the East Coast play a role in the works of these three authors. Moderated by Morgan Murray (Dirty Birds).

Presented in partnership with the Cabot Trail Writers Festival and the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia. 

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Indigenous Voices

Join us for a special presentation by nominees for this year’s Atlantic Book Awards. June is National Indigenous History Month, a time to recognize and honour the rich history, heritage, resilience, and diversity of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples across Canada. Authors Mi’sel Joe and Sheila O’Neill (My Indian), Rebecca Thomas (Swift Fox All Along), and Jodie Callaghan (The Train) will come together to discuss Oral history and the importance of Indigenous people telling their own stories. This online panel is hosted by Kelly Anne Butler, Indigenous Education Specialist at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

Presented in partnership with Newfoundland Public Libraries.

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An Evening of Poetry 

Join an evening of poetry readings and conversation featuring nominees for the J. M. Abraham Poetry Award: Alyda Faber (Poisonous if Eaten Raw), Triny Finlay (Myself a Paperclip), and Rebecca Salazar (Sulphurtongue). Hosted by musician, poet, performer and Prince Edward Island’s own Tanya Davis.

Presented in Partnership with the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia.

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Tough Topics in Children’s Literature

Join the nominees of the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature, Jodie Callaghan (The Train) and Chad Lucas (Thanks a Lot, Universe) as they discuss writing about tough topics for young readers and explore the challenge of turning difficult subjects into compelling children’s literature. This conversation will be hosted by acclaimed author Sheree Fitch, recipient of the 2020 Brimer Award for Everybody’s Different on EveryBody Street.

Presented in Partnership with the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia. 

The 2022 Atlantic Book Awards made a triumphant return to Paul O’Regan Hall at Halifax Central Library on Thursday, June 9. 

The recipients of eight awards were announced at an evening gala hosted by CTV’s Lataevia Beezer. For the first time, a livestream of the awards show also allowed book lovers everywhere to enjoy the ceremony online. 

Last year’s award winners, including Afua Cooper, Sydney Smith, and Anne Simpson, presented the 2022 awards, with some authors joining live and in-person and others via video, in a truly hybrid virtual and in-person event.

At the top of the night, David Huebert received the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction for Chemical Valley, published by Biblioasis, which was also nominated for the prestigious Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award. The jury shared that “in his courageous collection, David Huebert holds little back as he weaves superbly crafted stories of the dark, difficult, and gritty reality of being human.” 

Chad Lucas won the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature for his moving middle-grade debut novel, Thanks A Lot, Universe (Amulet Books). This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of the award established to honour Ann Connor Brimer, a dedicated educator and Atlantic Officer for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. 

The 2022 Atlantic Legacy Award, established to honour those who have made a lasting contribution to the development of the literary arts in Atlantic Canada, was awarded to Nova Scotia’s Lesley Choyce, publisher of Pottersfield Press and the author of more than 100 novels, books of non-fiction, children’s books, young adult novels, and poetry for adults, teens, and children. 

The APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award for an Atlantic Canadian publisher whose book best exemplifies excellence and achievement in publishing went to New Brunswick’s Goose Lane Editions with The Rooms Corporation for Future Possible: An Art History of Newfoundland and Labrador by Mireille Eagan. The jury praised the book, saying, “the spectacular expedition through the visual arts of Newfoundland and Labrador is work of exceptional graphic quality that reveals a rich and astonishing artistic panorama of this territory, so vast and so diverse in its communities.” 

Following the awards honouring excellence in poetry, illustration, and scholarly writing, the finale of the evening was the presentation of one of Canada’s largest book prizes. The Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award went to Newfoundland author Michelle Butler Hallett for her novel Constant Nobody (Goose Lane Editions). A spy thriller set in 1937 amid the Spanish Civil War, Constant Nobody is a gripping historical fiction that asks how far an individual will go to protect another — whether out of love or fear.

 The $30,000 prize is administered by the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, with support from Thomas Head Raddall’s family. The award is intended to provide writers “the gift of time and peace of mind.”  Marilyn Smulders, Executive Director of the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia, paid tribute to Thomas Raddall II who peacefully passed away last Friday. T. H. Raddall’s son, the late Dr. Thomas Raddall, was instrumental in creating this generously funded prize in his father’s honour.

Of the book, the Raddall jury said, “Constant Nobody is a powerful book in which both profound inhumanity and unlikely tenderness are real and believable. It’s a novel for our times, shockingly reverberating right up to the present.” 

The board of the non-profit Atlantic Book Awards Society is made up of representatives of the Atlantic Canadian book and writing community. The 2022 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of our partners and sponsors: the Canada Book Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Canada Council for the Arts, Support4Culture, Atlantic Books Today, Chapters/Indigo/Coles, CTV Atlantic, Halifax Public Libraries, New Brunswick’s Frye Festival, and the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia. The Atlantic Book Awards Society also recognizes the support of the Province of Nova Scotia. We are pleased to work in partnership with the Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism, and Heritage to develop and promote our cultural resources for all Nova Scotians. 

The winners of the 2022 Atlantic Book Awards are:

• Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction

David Huebert, Chemical Valley (Biblioasis) 

• Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature

Chad Lucas, Thanks a Lot, Universe (Amulet Books) 

• APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award

Goose Lane Editions with The Rooms Corporation, Future Possible: An Art History of Newfoundland and Labrador by Mireille Eagan 

• Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing

Ardath Whynacht, Insurgent Love: Abolition and Domestic Homicide (Fernwood Publishing)

• J. M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award

Alyda Faber, Poisonous if Eaten Raw (Goose Lane Editions)

• Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration

Alea Marley, This is Ruby, written by Sara O’Leary (Tundra)

• Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

Michelle Butler Hallett, Constant Nobody (Goose Lane Editions) 

Join us online for the 2022 Atlantic Book Awards Gala hosted by CTV’s Lataevia Beezer. Seven awards honouring excellence in writing, illustration, and publishing will be presented by past winners. Discover who will take home this year’s Atlantic Legacy Award honouring an individual who has made an extraordinary contribution to the advancement and encouragement of the literary arts in Atlantic Canada, and who will win the $30,000 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize.

Thursday, June 9 at 7:00 p.m.

Nova Scotian books took centrestage at the inaugural Nova Scotia Book Awards ceremony held Monday night at Halifax City Hall. 

“Well, everyone looks so nice,” said Lindsay Ruck, an author herself and the evening’s emcee, as she surveyed the packed room of mask-wearing attendees.

The event started with the presentation of the Margaret and John Savage First Book Awards for Nonfiction and Fiction. Named for his parents, the first book awards were introduced by Mayor Mike Savage. “Books in our house were a big deal,” he said.

Joanne Gallant received the debut non-fiction prize for her memoir about miscarriage and motherhood, A Womb in the Shape of a Heart, while Colin Sweets Arsenault claimed the debut fiction prize for his novel, Short Mercy. The win starts off a busy week for Sweets Arsenault; he’s getting married on Saturday. 

The new event introduced a new award: the George Borden Writing for Change Award. Previously the Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction, this award is for an outstanding non-fiction book by a Nova Scotian author that inspires others and challenges the status quo and is named for the late George Borden (1935–2020). 

The first winner of the George Borden Writing for Change Award is Glen Canning for My Daughter Rehtaeh Parsons. “It has a special meaning to me, to know a tragic story can inspire others to take a stand against injustice and commit to making our communities a safer place for us all,” said Canning.

Sharon Robart-Johnson received the Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction for her meticulously researched novel Jude and Diana, inspired by the true story of an enslaved teenager’s murder in 19^th century Nova Scotia. A delighted Robart-Johnson said she couldn’t believe she was even nominated when she first got the news. “When I got the email, I forwarded it to my editor to ask if it was real,” she said. “This means the world to me.”

Veteran journalist Stephen Kimber took home the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award for his biography of Alexa McDonough, Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadian Politics. Jury remarks praised Kimber’s storytelling in presenting “the remarkable journey of a legend.”

Until now, Nova Scotia didn’t have its own provincial literary awards celebration, as all the book awards for Nova Scotia authors were presented as part of the Atlantic Book Awards.

The new event separates Nova Scotia-only literary awards from those awards open to writers from all four Atlantic provinces, shining a more focused spotlight on Nova Scotia authors and books and bringing the province in line with the other three Atlantic provinces, each of which has its own provincial book awards celebration. 

Literary events continue all week, culminating with the Atlantic Book Awards Gala on Thursday, June 9, 7 pm at Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library. For tickets, please see www.atlanticbookawards.ca

The Nova Scotia Book Awards is a partnership between the Dartmouth Books Awards Committee and the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia, with support from the Atlantic Book Awards Society. The Society for the Nova Scotia Book Awards is grateful for generous funding from the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism, and Heritage, Support4Culture, and the University of King’s College.

Here is the full list of winners as presented:  

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Non-Fiction)

Joanne Gallant, A Womb in the Shape of a Heart: My Story of Miscarriage and Motherhood (Nimbus Publishing)

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Fiction)

Colin Sweets Arsenault, Short Mercy (Pottersfield Press)  

George Borden Writing for Change Award

Glen Canning (with Susan McClelland), My Daughter Rehtaeh Parsons (Goose Lane Editions)

Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)

Sharon Robart-Johnson, Jude and Diana (Fernwood Publishing)  

Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award

Stephen Kimber, Alexa!: Changing the Face of Canadian Politics (Goose Lane Editions)  

2022 Nova Scotia Book Awards

The 2022 Nova Scotia Book Awards take place at Halifax City Hall on Monday, June 6 at 7:00 p.m. The event will feature readings by Nova Scotia actors from the five award-winning books.

The inaugural Nova Scotia Book Awards celebrates those prizes open only to Nova Scotian authors. These provincial awards were previously awarded as part of the regional Atlantic Book Award ceremony.

These awards include:

• The Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award
• The George Borden Writing for Change Award
• The Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Fiction)
• The Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Non-Fiction)
• The Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award

Find the shortlist of nominees here.

Enjoy the show!