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)