The Atlantic Book Awards Society announced the nominees for this year’s Atlantic Book Awards at a fundraising event in Halifax Wednesday evening. Twenty-six books have been singled out across nine categories that represent a range of literary production coming out of the country’s eastern provinces. The awards will be presented on May 17 at a ceremony in St. John’s to mark the end of the week-long 2012 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival.

The 2012 nominees are:

Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature
Vicki Grant, Betsy Wickwire’s Dirty Secret (HarperCollins Canada)
Gloria Ann Wesley, Chasing Freedom (Roseway Publishing)
Susan White, The Year Mrs. Montague Cried (Acorn Press)

APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award, sponsored by Friesens
Chris Benjamin, Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada (Nimbus Publishing)
Doug Underhill; André Gallant, photog., Salmon Country: New Brunswick’s Great Angling Rivers (Goose Lane Editions)
Trudy J. Morgan-Cole, That Forgetful Shore (Breakwater Books)

Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction in Memory of Robbie Robertson, presented by the Kiwanis Club of Dartmouth
Carol Campbell and James F. Smith, Necessaries and Sufficiencies: Planter Society in Londonderry, Onslow and Truro Townships, 1761“1780 (Cape Breton University Press)
Dianne Marshall, Heroes of the Acadian Resistance: The Story of Joseph Beausoleil Broussard and Pierre Il Surette, 1702“1765 (Formac Publishing)
Harry Thurston, The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History (Greystone Books)

Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing
Carol Campbell and James F. Smith, Necessaries and Sufficiencies: Planter Society in Londonderry, Onslow and Truro Townships, 1761“1780 (CBU Press)
James E. Candow, The Lookout: A History of Signal Hill (Creative Book Publishing)
Jacques Poitras, Imaginary Line: Life on an Unfinished Border (Goose Lane)

Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction, presented by Boyne Clarke
Mary Rose Donnelly, Great Village (Cormorant Books)
Bruce Graham, Diligent River Daughter (Pottersfield Press)
Frank MacDonald, A Possible Madness (CBU Press)

Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration
Doretta Groenendyk, illus., Thank You for My Bed (Acorn Press)
Patsy MacKinnon, illus., A Day with You in Paradise by Lennie Gallant (Nimbus)
Sydney Smith, illus., There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen by Sheree Fitch (Nimbus)

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award
Heather Jessup, The Lightning Field (Gaspereau Press)
Michael Murphy, A Description of the Blazing World (Freehand Books)
Riel Nason, The Town that Drowned (Goose Lane)

Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction
Gerard Collins, Moonlight Sketches (Creative)
Kevin Major, New Under the Sun (Cormorant)
Patrick Warner, double talk (Breakwater)

The Bruneau Family Children’s/Young Adult Literature Award
Andy Jones; Darka Erdelji, illus., Jack and the Manger: A Christmas Jack Tale (Running the Goat Books & Broadsides)
Susan M. MacDonald, Edge of Time (Breakwater)
Janet McNaughton, Dragon Seer’s Gift (HarperCollins Canada)