I often forget how expansive Canada is until I have to announce all the regional and provincial book award programmes. Then, I find myself blogging post after post of worthy Canadian books, authors, illustrators and publishers which really do reflect the unique nature of each area. As such, it's only fitting that there are the
Manitoba Book Awards which are administered by the
Manitoba Writers’ Guild and the
Association of Manitoba
Book Publishers, with assistance from their numerous partners (Aqua Books,
Friesens, the Manitoba Arts Council, Manitoba Culture, Heritage and
Tourism, McNally Robinson Booksellers, Prairie Fire, the Winnipeg
International Writers Festival, the Winnipeg Foundation, the Winnipeg
Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts).
The 2012 nominees for the
Manitoba Book Awards were announced yesterday, with the presentation of awards scheduled for the gala on Saturday April 28th at
the Centre Culturel Franco-Manitobain and hosted by Drek Daa. If I was fortunate enough to live near Winnipeg, I'd be delighted to attend this event which is free and open to the public.
The
Manitoba Book Awards consist of the following thirteen categories:
- Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry / Prix Lansdowne de poésie
- Best Illustrated Book of the Year / Meilleur livre illustré de l’année
- Manuela Dias Book Design of the Year / Prix Manuela-Dias de conception graphique en édition
- Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book
- Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award / Prix littéraire Carol-Shields de la ville de Winnipeg
- Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction
- Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
- Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction / Prix Alexander-Kennedy-Isbister pour les études et essais
- John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer
- Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher / Prix Mary-Scorer pour le meilleur livre par un éditeur du Manitoba
- McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award
- Younger Category
- Older Category
- McNally Robinson Book of the Year
As I always do like to focus on the awards for younger readers, I've included the short-listed nominees for the
McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award.
In the Younger Category:
Annie’s Bright Idea: A Christmastime Adventure
by
Audrhea Lande
Illustrated by
Jenny Prest
Self-published
Nanabosho and the Butterflies
by
Joe and Matrine McLellan
Illustrated by
Jackie Traverse
Pemmican Publications
S is for Science: A Discovery of Alphabet
by
Larry Verstraete
Sleeping Bear Press
In the Older Category:
Case Files: 40 Murders and Mysteries Solved by Science
by
Larry Verstraete
Scholastic
Kingdom of Trolls
by
Rae Bridgman
Sybertooth
Tori by Design
by
Colleen Nelson
Great Plains Teen Fiction
Find more details on this year's nominees at the
Manitoba Writers' Guild or about the awards in general at the
Association of Manitoba Book Publishers .