The Koffler Centre of the Arts has announced the finalists for the 2021 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature.

The annual awards honour Canadian writers who are Jewish or who deal with Jewish subjects across four categories: fiction, history, nonfiction, and YA/children’s literature. A Vine Award for poetry is awarded every three years.

This year’s jury, authors Zelda Abramson, Nathan Adler, and Naomi K. Lewis, read 42 entries to determine the shortlist. The winners will be announced in an online awards ceremony on Nov. 23.

Fiction

• Sidura Ludwig, You Are Not What We Expected (House of Anansi)
• Nessa Rapoport, Evening (Counterpoint Press)
• Carol Windley, Midnight Train to Prague (HarperCollins Canada)

History

• Paul Roberts Bentley, Strange Journey: John R. Friedeberg Seeley and the Quest for Mental Health (Academic Studies Press)
• Sharon Kirsch, The Smallest Objective (New Star Books)
• Celia Rabinovitch, Duchamp’s Pipe: A Chess Romance – Marcel Duchamp and George Koltanowski (North Atlantic Books)

Nonfiction

• Rachel Matlow, Dead Mom Walking (Viking/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Rick Salutin and Gideon Salutin, illustrated by Dušan Petričić, Gideon’s Bible: A Father and Son Discuss God, the Bible and Life (ECW Press)
• Myriam Steinberg, illustrated by Christache, Catalogue Baby: A Memoir of (In)fertility (Page Two Books)

Young Adult/Children’s Literature

• Michelle Barker, My Long List of Impossible Things (Annick Press)
• Helaine Becker, illustrated by Kari Rust, Emmy Noether: The Most Important Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of (Kids Can Press)
• Gordon Korman, War Stories (Scholastic Canada)