The recipients of the 2017 Manitoba Book Awards, which aim to recognize the province’s top authors and presses, were announced at a ceremony in Winnipeg on April 22. More than $30,000 in prize money was presented over 17 categories.
Notable winners include Katherena Vermette, who won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award for The Break (House of Anansi Press).
Winnipeg author Angeline Schellenberg won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer, the Eileen McTabish Sykes Award for Best First Book, and the Landsdowne Prize for Poetry for her debut collection Tell Them It Was Mozart (Brick Books).
David Alexander Robertson and illustrator Julie Flett took home the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award in the younger category for When We Were Alone (HighWater Press), while Stephanie Tromly won the prize in the older category for Trouble Makes a Comeback (Kathy Dawson Books). Robertson was also presented with the Beatrice Mosionier Aboriginal Writer of the Year Award, which he shared with Trevor Greyeyes. Another title by Robertson, Will I See (HighWater), illustrated by GMB Chomichuk, was honoured with the Manuela Dias Book Design and Illustration Award in the Graphic Novel category.
See all of the winners on the Manitoba Book Awards website.