Connie Gault (photo: Don Hall)

Shortlists for the 2016 Saskatchewan Book Awards, recognizing works of excellence produced the province’s writers and publishers, were announced on Feb. 12, and include Connie Gault’s Giller Prize–longlisted novel, A Beauty, and multiple nominations for Thistledown Press and McClelland & Stewart.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony hosted by author-comedian Dawn Dumont at Regina’s Conexus Arts Centre on April 30.

Finalists for the top three categories:

University of Regina Book of the Year Award

• Connie Gault, A Beauty (McClelland & Stewart)
• Jeanette Lynes, Bedlam Cowslip (Wolsak & Wynn)
• Joseph Auguste Merasty and David Carpenter, The Education of Augie Merasty (University of Regina Press)
• Guy Vanderhaeghe, Daddy Lenin and Other Stories (McClelland & Stewart)

Fiction Award

• Carol Daniels, Bearskin Diary (Nightwood Editions)
• Connie Gault, A Beauty (McClelland & Stewart)
• R.P. MacIntyre, Mahihkan Lake (Thistledown Press)
• Elizabeth Philips, The Afterlife of Birds (Freehand Books)
• Guy Vanderhaeghe, Daddy Lenin and Other Stories (McClelland & Stewart)
• Dianne Warren, Liberty Street (HarperCollins Canada)

University of Saskatchewan Non-Fiction Award

• Raymond Blake, Lions or Jellyfish: Newfoundland-Ottawa Relations since 1957 (University of Toronto Press)
• Ken Coates, #Idlenomore and the Remaking of Canada (University of Regina Press)
• Sylvia McAdam (Saysewahum), Nationhood Interrupted: Revitalizing nêhiyaw Legal Systems (Purich Publishing/Brunswick Books)
• Alexandra Popoff, Tolstoy’s False Disciple (Pegasus Books)

Rasmussen, Rasmussen & Charowsky Aboriginal Peoples’ Writing Award

• Rita Bouvier, nakamowin’sa for the seasons (Thistledown Press)
• Carol Daniels, Bearskin Diary (Nightwood Editions)
• Tara Gereaux, Size of a Fist (Thistledown Press)
• Harold Johnson, Corvus (Thistledown Press)
• Sylvia McAdam, Nationhood Interrupted (Purich)
• Judith Silverthorne and Ray Lavallee; Mike Keepness, illus., Honouring the Buffalo (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)