Heather O’Neill

The Quebec Writers’ Federation has named the finalists and juries for its annual literary awards, recognizing excellent English-language literature from the province’s authors and publishers in six categories:

Children’s/YA (judged by Catherine Austen, Lisa Doucet, and Raziel Reid)

• Kate Lavut, Chico (Paper Dog Press)
• Karen Nesbitt, Subject to Change (Orca Book Publishers)
• Lori Weber, Lightning Lou (Dancing Cat Books)

Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (judged by Peggy Herring, La Florya Gautheir, and Vish Khanna)

• Heather O’Neill, The Lonely Hearts Hotel (HarperCollins)
• Cora Siré, Behold Things Beautiful (Signature Editions)
• Kathleen Winter, Lost in September (Knopf Canada)

Concordia University First Book Prize (judged by Marilyn Bowering, Adrian Harewood, and Alexia Moyer)

• Ariela Freedman, Arabic for Beginners (Linda Leith Publishing)
• Jocelyn Parr, Uncertain Weights and Measures (Goose Lane Editions)
• J. Jacob Ptashnik, The Golem of Hampstead and Other Stories (Penny-a-Page Press)

Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction (to be judged by Chris Frey, Rod MacLeod, and Rebecca Margolis)

• E.A. Heaman, Tax, Order and Good Government: A New Political History of Canada, 1867–1917 (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
• Laila Parsons, The Commander: Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Fight for Arab Independence, 1914–1948 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
• Sandra Perron, Out Standing in the Field: A Memoir by Canada’s First Female Infantry Officer (Cormorant Books)

A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry (judged by Geoffrey Cook, George Murray, and Jennifer Still)

• Linda Besner, Feel Happier in Nine Seconds (Coach House Boooks)
• Rebecca Păpucaru, The Panic Room (Nightwood Editions)
• Erin Robinsong, Rag Cosmology (BookThug)

Cole Foundation Prize for Translation (judged by Renée Desjardins, Jeffrey Moore, and Greg Robinson)

• Peter Feldstein for The Pauper’s Freedom: Crime and Poverty in Nineteenth-Century Quebec (McGill-Queen’s University Press), from Jean-Marie Fecteau’s La liberté pauvre (VLB éditeur)
• Karen Ocana for Rooms (Guernica Editions), from Louise Dupré ‘s Chambres (Les Éditions du remue-ménage)
• Claire Holden Rothman for Sun of a Distant Land (Véhicule Press), from David Bouchet’s Soleil (Les Éditions Peuplade)
• Donald Winkler for A Tea in the Tundra / Nipishapui Nete Mushuat (BookLand Press), from Joséphine Bacon’s Un thé dans la toundra : Nipishapui Nete Mushuat (Mémoire d’encrrier)

The six winners, who will each receive a prize of $2,000, will be announced at a ceremony on Nov. 21.