The 2010 Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada were announced on Tuesday. Selected by judges Alan Brownoff, Dr. Shelley Gruendler, and CS Richardson, 37 titles have been honoured this year.

Peter Cocking of D&M Publishers was the big winner with five awards: first prize in the Pictorial category for Visions of British Columbia by Bruce Grenville and Scott Steedman; first and second prize in the Prose category for, respectively, I am a Japanese Writer by Dany Laferrière and Darwin’s Bastards by Zsuzsi Gartner. Cocking was also given an honourable mention in the Prose category for Laferrière’s How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired. He also received first prize for The Armchair Book of Gardens by Jane Billinghurst (Greystone Books), which he co-designed with Jessica Sullivan and Naomi MacDougall.

Gaspereau Press’s Andrew Steeves received three awards, including first prize in the Poetry category for A Short History of Forgetting by Paul Tyler. A complete list of winners is available here.

The winning books will be on display at the Frankfurt and Leipzig Book Fairs, and in a series of exhibitions across Canada. Awards will be presented this fall at ceremonies in Vancouver and Toronto.