The Atlantic Book Awards Society has announced the shortlists for its 10 annual prizes, which celebrate the best literary works produced in Atlantic Canada.

For the first time, the society is offering an award for scholarly publishing.

The awards will be handed out at a ceremony on May 16, as part of the Atlantic Book Awards and Festival.

• Live to Tell, Lisa Harrington (Dancing Cat Books)
• Kamakwie: Finding Peace, Love, and Injustice in Sierra Leone, Kathleen Martin (Red Deer Press)
• Enemy Territory, Sharon E. McKay (Annick Press)

APMA Best Atlantic Published Book Award

• Grandma Says, Cindy Day (Nimbus Publishing)
• Riptides: New Island Fiction, Richard Lemm, ed. (Acorn Press)
• The Metamorphosis: The Apprenticeship of Harry Houdini, Bruce MacNab (Goose Lane Editions)

Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing

• The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil, Susan Dodd (Fernwood Publishing)
• A History of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic to 1818, Shannon Ryan (Flanker Press)
• The Language of This Land, Mi’kma’ki, Trudy Sable and Bernie Francis (Cape Breton University Press)

Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction

• The Village of My Heart’s Mistake: An Acadian Life, Denise Cormier (Encompass Editions)
• Nova Scotia’s Historic Rivers: The Waterways that Shaped the Province, Joan Dawson (Nimbus)
• French Taste in Atlantic Canada 1604“1758: A Gastronomic History, Anne Marie Lane Jonah and Chantal VéChambre (Cape Breton University Press)

Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing

• Haunted Girl: Esther Cox and the Great Amherst Mystery, Laurie Glenn Norris with Barbara Thompson (Nimbus)
• Master and Madman: The Surprising Rise and Disastrous Fall of the Hon Anthony Lockwood RN, Peter Thomas and Nicholas Tracy (Goose Lane)
• In Search of R. B. Bennett, P.B. Waite (McGill-Queen’s University Press)

E.J. Pratt Poetry Award

• Gift Horse, Mark Callanan (Signal Editions/Véhicule Press)
• Paradoxides, Don McKay (McClelland & Stewart)
• Whiteout, George Murray (ECW Press)

Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)

• The Rest is Silence, Scott Fotheringham (Goose Lane)
• Anna from Away, D.R. MacDonald (Harper Collins)
• The Deception of Livvy Higgs, Donna Morrissey (Viking Canada)

Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration

• Driftwood Dragons and Other Seaside Poems, Tyne Brown; Tamara Thiebaux Heikalo, illus. (Nimbus)
• I is for Island: A Prince Edward Island Alphabet, Hugh MacDonald; Brenda Jones, illus. (Sleeping Bear Press)
• Toes In My Nose and Other Poems, Sheree Fitch; Sydney Smith, illus. (Nimbus)

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award

• High Water Mark, Nicole Dixon (The Porcupine’s Quill)
• Dirty Bird, Keir Lowther (Tightrope Books)
• Braco, Lesleyanne Ryan (Breakwater Books)

Rogers Communications Award for Non-fiction

• The Other Side of Midnight: Taxicab Stories, Mike Heffernan (Creative Book Publishing)
• Don’t Tell the Newfoundlanders: The True Story of Newfoundland’s Confederation with Canada, Greg Malone (Knopf Canada)
• In the Field, Joan Sullivan (Breakwater Books)