The Atlantic Book Awards Society has announced the shortlists for this year’s Atlantic Book Awards, which celebrate excellence in Atlantic Canadian writing across 12 categories.

The winners of this year’s awards will be announced at a gala in Halifax on June 9 as part of the Atlantic Book Awards Festival.

Evelyn Richardson Nonfiction Award

• Stephen Kimber, Alexa!: Changing the Face of Canadian Politics (Goose Lane Editions)
• Susan MacLeod, Dying for Attention: A Graphic Memoir of Nursing Home Care (Conundrum Press)
• Donna Morrissey, Pluck: A Memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Terrible, Amazing Journey to Becoming a Novelist (Penguin Random House Canada)

George Borden Writing for Change Award

• Glen Canning (with Susan McClelland), My Daughter Rehtaeh Parsons (Goose Lane Editions)
• Stephen Kimber, Alexa!: Changing the Face of Canadian Politics (Goose Lane Editions)
• Don Oliver, A Matter of Equality: The Life’s Work of Senator Don Oliver (Nimbus)

Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)

• Hannah Moscovitch, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Sharon Robart-Johnson, Jude and Diana (Fernwood Publishing)
• Colin Sweets Arsenault, Short Mercy (Pottersfield Press)

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Fiction)

• Alexandra Harrington, The Last Time I Saw Her (Nimbus)
• C. S. Porter, Beneath Her Skin (Nimbus)
• Colin Sweets Arsenault, Short Mercy (Pottersfield Press)

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Nonfiction)

• Joanne Gallant, A Womb in the Shape of a Heart: My Story of Miscarriage and Motherhood (Nimbus)
• Susan MacLeod, Dying for Attention: A Graphic Memoir of Nursing Home Care (Conundrum Press)
• Don Oliver, A Matter of Equality: The Life’s Work of Senator Don Oliver (Nimbus)

Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction

• David Huebert, Chemical Valley (Biblioasis)
• Amber McMillan, The Running Trees (Goose Lane Editions)
• Claire Wilkshire, The Love Olympics (Breakwater Books)

Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature

• Jodie Callaghan, The Train (Second Story Press)
• Chad Lucas, Thanks a Lot, Universe (Amulet Books)
• Rebecca Thomas, Swift Fox All Along (Annick Press)

APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award

• Breakwater Books, My Indian by Saqamaw Mi’sel Joe & Sheila O’Neill
• Goose Lane Editions, Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadian Politics by Stephen Kimber
• Goose Lane Editions with The Rooms Corporation, Future Possible: An Art History of Newfoundland and Labrador by Mireille Eagan

Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing

• Matthew W. Betts & M. Gabriel Hrynick, The Archaeology of the Atlantic Northeast (University of Toronto Press)
• George Elliott Clarke, Where Beauty Survived: An Africadian Memoir (Knopf Canada)
• Ardath Whynacht, Insurgent Love: Abolition and Domestic Homicide (Fernwood Publishing)

J. M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award

• Alyda Faber, Poisonous if Eaten Raw (Goose Lane Editions)
• Triny Finlay, Myself a Paper Clip (Goose Lane Editions)
• Rebecca Salazar, Sulphurtongue (Penguin Random House)

Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration

• Marie Lafrance, Gemma and the Giant Girl, written by Sara O’Leary (Tundra)
• Alea Marley, This is Ruby written by Sara O’Leary (Tundra)
• Réjean Roy, Le Géant du Nord Canadien written by Réjean Roy (Bouton d’or Acadie)

Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

• Michelle Butler Hallett, Constant Nobody (Goose Lane Editions)
• David Huebert, Chemical Valley (Biblioasis)
• Sharon Robart-Johnson, Jude and Diana (Fernwood Publishing)