33 Authors and Illustrators Up for 2010 Atlantic Book Awards
Linden MacIntyre Leads with Three Nominations

The Atlantic Book Awards Society is pleased to announce the full shortlist for the 11 different literary awards that make up the 2010 Atlantic Book Awards. Among the 33 authors and illustrators up for awards are three multiple nominees: Linden MacIntyre is nominated for three awards for The Bishop’s Man (Random House); Michael Crummey (Galore), Shandi Mitchell (Under This Unbroken Sky), and Bob Chaulk and the late Greg Cochkanoff (SS Atlantic: The White Star Line’s First Disaster at Sea) are all nominated for two awards each. The complete shortlist, containing 28 books ranging from fiction to non-fiction to poetry and children’s books, can be read below and is available at www.atlanticbookawards.ca.

MacIntyre, long-time co-host of CBC Television’s the fifth estate, picked up the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his shortlisted novel about a priest experiencing a crisis of faith. Born in Newfoundland and raised in Cape Breton, MacIntyre says, “It is a great honour to be recognized in a place that I have always considered home.” The Bishop’s Man is on the shortlists for the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award, the Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction) and the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award (“the Raddall”).

Nova Scotia filmmaker and double nominee, Shandi Mitchell is receiving considerable international recognition for her debut novel, which was recently selected as a regional finalist (Caribbean and Canada) for the Commonwealth Best First Book Prize. Under This Unbroken Sky (Penguin) is shortlisted for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award and for the Raddall.

Nominee Greg Cochkanoff spent 25 years researching the wreck of the SS Atlantic, performing hundreds of dives to its resting place and scouring three countries and two continents in his effort to write the definitive book on the topic. Cochkanoff died unexpectedly in 2008, age 49. He had just received word from New Brunswick’s Goose Lane Editions that his book was to be published. Cochkanoff’s friend and scuba diving partner, author and historian Bob Chaulk, took on the completion of SS Atlantic: The White Star Line’s First Disaster at Sea. Their book is nominated for the Dartmouth Book Award (Non-fiction) and the Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing.

The Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, the region’s richest literary prize, celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. In addition to MacIntyre and Mitchell, the third nominee for the Raddall is past recipient, Michael Crummey of Newfoundland. His novel Galore (Doubleday Canada) is also up for the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award against MacIntyre and New Brunswick’s David Adams Richards for God Is. (Doubleday Canada).

Also celebrating its 20th anniversary is the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature. This year’s nominees include last year’s winner, Jill MacLean for The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy, Darlene Ryan for Five Minutes More, and Valerie Sherrard for Tumbleweed Skies.

Regional publishers are well-represented on the shortlist. Newfoundland leads the pack: Flanker Press and Creative Publishing each have two books on the list, and Boulder Publications and Breakwater Books each have one. Nova Scotia publishers Gaspereau Press, Invisible Publishing, Cape Breton University Press, and Nimbus Publishing have one nomination each, and New Brunswick’s Goose Lane Editions has two nominees.

The 2010 Atlantic Book Awards celebration, a highlight of the week-long Atlantic Book Awards and Festival, takes place at 7:00 p.m., Wednesday, April 14 at the Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth, NS. A total of thirteen awards will be presented, including the two HRM Mayor’s Awards—for Excellence in Book Illustration and for Literary Achievement—for which there are no shortlists. Co-hosting the awards celebration this year are Newfoundland playwright, comedienne, and author Berni Stapleton and Costas Halavrezos of CBC Radio’s Maritime Noon.

The 2010 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival runs from Saturday, April 10 – Sunday, April 18 with free literary events taking place in all four Atlantic provinces. Festival details will be available at www.atlanticbookawards.ca in the coming weeks.

The board of the non-profit Atlantic Book Awards Society is made up of representatives of the Atlantic Canadian book and writing community. The 2010 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Canada Book Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the sponsorship of Advocate Printing, Chapters/Coles/Indigo, The Guardian, The Chronicle Herald, The Telegram, and the Telegraph-Journal.

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2010 Atlantic Book Awards Shortlists

Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature
Jill MacLean, The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
Darlene Ryan, Five Minutes More (Orca Book Publishers)
Valerie Sherrard, Tumbleweed Skies (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award
Birds of Newfoundland Field Guide by Ian Warkentin and Sandy Newton (Boulder Publications)
By the Rivers of Brooklyn by Trudy J. Morgan-Cole (Breakwater Books Ltd.)
A Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary / Peskotomuhkati Wolastoqewi Latuwewakon by David A. Francis and Robert M. Leavitt  (Goose Lane Editions)

Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award
Michael Crummey, Galore (Doubleday Canada)
Linden MacIntyre , The Bishop’s Man (Random House Canada)
David Adams Richards, God Is. (Doubleday Canada)

Atlantic Poetry Prize
Anne Compton, Asking Questions Indoors and Out (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)
Tonja Gunvaldsen Klaassen, Lean-To (Gaspereau Press)
Zachariah Wells, Track & Trace (Biblioasis)

Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)
George Elliott Clarke, I & I (Goose Lane Editions)
Linden MacIntyre , The Bishop’s Man (Random House Canada)
Anna Quon, Migration Songs (Invisible Publishing)

Dartmouth Book Award (Non-fiction)
Greg Cochkanoff and Bob Chaulk, SS Atlantic: The White Star Line’s First Disaster at Sea (Goose Lane Editions)
Stephen Kimber, IWK: A Century of Caring for Families (Nimbus Publishing)
Anne Murray with Michael Posner, All of Me (Knopf Canada)

Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing
Raoul R. Anderson and John K. Crellin (editors), Mi’sel Joe: An Aboriginal Chief’s Journey (Flanker Press)
Greg Cochkanoff and Bob Chaulk, SS Atlantic: The White Star Line’s First Disaster at Sea (Goose Lane Editions)
Mike Heffernan, Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster (Creative Publishing)

Evelyn Richardson Memorial Literary Prize for Non-fiction
Jason I. Brown, Our Days Are Numbered (McClelland and Stewart)
Harry Bruce, Page Fright (McClelland and Stewart)
John DeMont, Coal Black Heart (Doubleday Canada)

Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Illustration
Kathy (HildaRose) Kaulbach, Johnny and the Gipsy Moth by Deannie Sullivan-Fraser (Tuckamore Books, an imprint of Creative Publishing)
Scott A. Keating, What Colour is the Ocean? by Gary Collins with Maggie Rose Parsons (Flanker Press)
Marie Moore, Cape Breton Wonders by Shirley Everett and Chris Augusta Scott (Cape Breton University Press)

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award
Binnie Brennan, Harbour View (Quattro Books)
Greg Malone, You Better Watch Out (Knopf Canada)
Shandi Mitchell, Under This Unbroken Sky (Penguin)

Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award
Michael Crummey, Galore (Doubleday Canada)
Linden MacIntyre, The Bishop’s Man (Random House)
Shandi Mitchell, Under This Unbroken Sky (Penguin)

—
Nicholas Graham
Publicist & Events Coordinator,
Atlantic Book Awards & Festival
http://www.atlanticbookawards.ca
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