The Manitoba Writers’ Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers have revealed the shortlists for this year’s Manitoba Book Awards. The winners will be announced at a free public gala in Winnipeg on April 28.
The 2012 nominees across 13 categories include:
Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry
- A Walker in the City by Méira Cook (Brick Books)
- Girlwood by Jennifer Still (Brick)
- Poème Pierre Prière by J.R. Léveillé (Éditions du Blé)
Best Illustrated Book of the Year
- David’s Trip to Paraguay: The Country with Amazing Colours /Davids Reise in das Land der vielen Farben, Miriam Rudolph (CMU Press)
- Reise in das Land der vielen Farben by Miriam Rudolph (Canadian Mennonite University Press)
- The Imagination Manifesto: Book Three by John Toone; GMB Chomichuk, illus. (Alchemical Press)
- Portraits of Winnipeg by Robert J. Sweeney (Turnstone Press)
Manuela Dias Book Design of the Year
- Jamis Paulson, Alert to Glory by Sally Ito (Turnstone)
- Jamis Paulson, Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
- Bernard Léveillé, Poème Pierre Prière by J.R. Léveillé (Éditions du Blé)
Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book
- A Large Harmonium by Sue Sorensen (Coteau Books)
- Dadolescence by Bob Armstrong (Turnstone)
- Winnie the Bear by M.A. Appleby (Self-published)
Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award
- Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
- Forgotten Heroes: Winnipeg’s Hockey Heritage by Richard Brignall (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
- Ravenscraig by Sandi Krawchenko Altner (Heartland Associates)
- Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900“1967 by Dale Barbour (University of Manitoba Press)
Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction
- The Girl in the Wall by Alison Preston (Signature Editions)
- The Imagination Manifesto: Book Three by John Toone; GMB Chomichuk, illus. (Alchemical Press)
- The Thirteen by Susie Moloney (Random House Canada)
- The Valedictorians by David Annandale (Ravenstone)
Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction
- Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
- The Girl in the Wall by Alison Preston (Signature)
- A Large Harmonium by Sue Sorensen (Coteau)
- Not Being on a Boat by Esmé Claire Keith (Freehand Books)
- Twelve Drummers Drumming by C.C. Benison (Doubleday Canada)
Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction
- The Blaikie Report: An Insider’s Look at Faith and Politics by Bill Blaikie (United Church Publishing House)
- Canadian Labour in Crisis: Reinventing the Workers’ Movement by David Camfield (Fernwood Publishing)
- Community and Frontier: A Ukrainian Settlement in the Canadian Parkland by John C. Lehr (UMP)
- Good Places to Live: Poverty and Public Housing in Canada by Jim Silver (Fernwood)
- King “ William Lyon MacKenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny by Allan Levine (Douglas and McIntyre)
John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer
- Bob Armstrong
- Jonathan Ball
- Jennifer Still
Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher
- Alert to Glory by Sally Ito (Turnstone)
- Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
- Butterfly Winter by W.P. Kinsella (Enfield and Wizenty)
- La plus belle Création de Corbeau by David Bouchard; Brigitte Lopez, illus. (Les Éditions des Plaines)
- What the Bear Said: Skald Tales of New Iceland by W.D. Valgardson (Turnstone)
McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award
Younger kids category:
- Annie’s Bright Idea: A Christmastime Adventure by Audrhea Lande; Jenny Prest, illus. (Self-published)
- Nanabosho and the Butterflies by Joe and Matrine McLellan; Jackie Traverse, illus. (Pemmican Publications)
- S is for Scientists: A Discovery Alphabet by Larry Verstraete; David Geister; illus. (Sleeping Bear Press)
Older kids category:
- Case Files: 40 Murders and Mysteries Solved by Science by Larry Verstraete (Scholastic Canada)
- Kingdom of Trolls by Rae Bridgman (Sybertooth)
- Tori by Design by Colleen Nelson (Great Plains Teen Fiction)
McNally Robinson Book of the Year
- Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
- Dancing, with Mirrors by George Amabile (Porcupine’s Quill)
- King “ William Lyon MacKenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny by Allan Levine (Douglas & McIntyre)
- Not Being on a Boat by Esmé Claire Keith (Freehand)
- Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900“1967 by Dale Barbour (UMP)