News

November 27th, 2008

The winners of the Writers' Trust Prizes have been announced.

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize went to Miriam Toews for The Flying Troutman

Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize went to Taras Grescoe for Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood

Journey Prize went to Saleema Nawaz for the short story "My Three Girls"

Notable Author Award went to Michael Winter

Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life went to Sylvia Fraser

November 25th, 2008

The contenders for Canada Reads 2009 have been announced.

Here are the titles for Canada Reads 2009 and the celebrity panelists who will be lobbying for their book to win Canada Reads.

The Outlander, by Gil Adamson. Panelist: Nicholas Campbell

Fruit, by Brian Francis. Panelist: Jen Sookfong Lee

Mercy Among the Children, by David Adams Richards. Panelist: Sarah Slean (Paul's favourite!)

The Fat Woman Next Door is Pregnant, by Michel Tremblay. Panelist: Anne-Marie Wittenshaw

The Book of Negroes, by Lawrence Hill. Panelist: Avi Lewis

If you're not familiar with Canada Reads, this is a feature CBC Radio runs every year where five celebrity panelists battle it out over which book should be the one that all of Canada reads next year. Surprisingly, even to me, this has been a remarkable success over the last few years, with the winner (and often the runners up) become bestsellers in Canada. The books chosen are always excellent and, frequently, challenging works (over the years titles chosen have included Hubert Aquin's Next Episode and Leonard Cohen's Beautiful Losers).

Although the Canada Reads panel discussions and the "voting off" of particular titles can sometimes be frustrating to listen to, this is a great program that does a tremendous amount to promote Canadian literature. How could anyone complain about that?

November 18th, 2008

The 2008 Governor General's Literary Award winners have been announced.

Fiction:  Nino Ricci for The Origin of  Species and Marie-Claire Blais for Naissance de Rebecca à l’ère des tourments.

Poetry:  Jacob Scheier for More to Keep Us Warm and Michel Pleau for La lenteur du monde.

Drama:  Catherine Banks for Bone Cage and Jennifer Tremblay for La Liste.

Non-Fiction:  Christie Blatchford for Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army and Pierre Ouellet for Hors-temps: poétique de la posthistoire.

Translation - French to English:  Lazar Lederhendler for Nikolski (written by Nicholas Dickner)
English to French:  Claire Chabalier and Louise Chabalier for Tracey en mille morceaux (The Tracey Fragments written by Maureen Medved).

Also - the 2008 Saskatchewan Book Awards shortlist:

Book of the Year - Sharon Butala for The Girl in Saskatoon: A Meditation on Friendship, Memory and Murder ;  Gary Hyland for Love of Mirrors: Poems New and Selected ; Barbara Klar for Cypress ; Daniel MacDonald for MacGregor's Hard Ice Cream and Gas ; Carey Rigby-Wilcox for My Mummy Couldn't Read and Bill Waiser for Who Killed Jackie Bates? Murder and Mercy during the Great Depression

Fiction - Gail Bowen for The Brutal Heart ; Pam Bustin for Mostly Happy ; Bonnie Dunlop for Carnival Glass ; Harold Johnson for Charlie Muskrat and Arthur Slade for Jolted: Newton Starker's Rules for Survival

Poetry - Louise Bernice Halfe for The Crooked Good ; Gary Hyland for Love of Mirrors: Poems New and Selected ; Barbara Klar for Cypress ; Taylor Leedahl for No Apologies for the Weather ; Mari-Lou Rowley for Suicide Psalms and Allan Safarik for Yellowgrass

For a complete list please go to:

http://www.bookawards.sk.ca/news.php

November 12th, 2008

The 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize goes to Joseph Boyden for Through Black Spruce

October 27th, 2008

Lots of award news including the GG finalists:

Scotiabank Giller Prize 2008 Shortlist: 

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
Cockroach by Rawi Hage
The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan

2008 Toronto Book Award:

Winner - Glen Downie for Loyalty Management

Finalists -  Elspeth Cameron for  And Beauty Answers: The Life of Francis Loring and Florence Wyle
David Chariandy for Soucouyant
Elyse Friedman for Long Story Short
Barbara Gowdy for Helpless

The Writers' Trust Finalists:

Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize - Rivka Galchen for Atmospheric Disturbances
Rawi Hage for Cockroach
Lee Henderson for The Man Game
Patrick Lane for Red Dog, Red Dog
Miriam Toews for The Flying Troutman

Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize - Taras Grescoe for Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
Carl Honore for Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting
Mark Kingwell for Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City
Margaret Visser for The Gift of Thanks: The Roots, Persistence and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual
Russell Wangersky for Burning Down the House: Fighting Fire and Losing Myself

Writers' Trust/McClelland and Stewart Journey Prize - Dana Mills for " Steaming for Godthab"
Saleema Nawaz for "My Three Girls"
Clea Young for " Chaperone"

2008 Governor General's Literary Award Finalists:

English Fiction - Rivka Galchen for Atmospheric Disturbances and Other Sad Meteorological Phenomena
Rawi Hage for Cockroach
Nino Ricci for The Origin of the Species
David Adams Richards for The Lost Highway
Fred Stenson for The Great Karoo

English Poetry - Weyman Chan for Noise from the Laundry
A. F. Moritz for The Sentinel
Sachiko Murakami for The Invisibility Exhibit
Ruth Roach Pierson for Aide-Mémoire
Jacob Scheier for More To Keep Us Warm

English Drama - Catherine Banks for Bone Cage
Ronnie Burkett for 10 Days on Earth
Paul Ciufo for Reverend Jonah
Marie Clements for Copper Thunderbird
Judith Thompson for Palace of the End

English Non-Fiction - Christie Blatchford for Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army
Douglas Hunter for God’s Mercies. Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery
Sid Marty for The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek
James Orbinski for An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century
Chris Turner for The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need

Translation: French to English - Jo-Anne Elder for translating Beatitudes - Herménégilde Chiasson's Béatitudes
Liedewy Hawke for translating The Postman's Round - Denis Thériault's Le facteur émotif
Lazer Lederhendler for translating Nikolski - Nicolas Dickner's Nikolski
Paul Leduc Browne and Michelle Weinroth for translating The Making of the Nations and Cultures of the New World - Gérard Bouchard's Genèse des nations et cultures du Nouveau Monde
Fred A. Reed for translating Orfeo - Hans-Jürgen Greif's Orfeo

For the rest of the finalists - please see:

http://www.canadacouncil.ca/news/releases/2008/ji128689896750577220.htm

September, 2008

Scotiabank Giller Prize 2008 Longlist:

Lost Highway by David Adams Richards
The Retreat by David Bergen
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
More by Austin Clarke
Barnacle Love by Anthony De Sa
The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue
Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
Cockroach by Rawi Hage
Blackstrap Hawco by Kenneth J. Harvey
Red Dog, Red Dog by Patrick Lane
The Withdrawal Method by Pasha Malla
The Ravine by Paul Quarrington
The Origin of the Species by Nino Ricci
The Boys in the Trees by Mary Swan