The High Plains Book Awards have announced the finalists for the 2023 prizes, with winners to be named in October.

The book awards recognize regional authors and/or literary works that examine and reflect life on the High Plains, including Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, the states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas.

The Canadian finalists are:

Creative Nonfiction

• David Carpenter, I Never Met a Rattlesnake I Didn’t Like (Thistledown Press)

Fiction

• Zarqa Nawaz, Jameela Green Ruins Everything (Simon & Schuster Canada)

Indigenous Writer

• Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) and Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation (HarperCollins)

Poetry

• Emily Riddle, The Big Melt (Nightwood Editions)

Short Stories

• Leslie Greentree, Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For (University of Calgary Press)
•  Brady Harrison, The Term Between (Twelve Winters Press)

Woman Writer

• Katherine Lawrence, Black Umbrella (Turnstone Press)
• Jeanette Lynes, The Apothecary’s Garden (HarperAvenue/HarperCollins)

Children’s Picture Book

• Jena Wagmann and Alana Hytrle, ill., Buddy: A Farm in the Forest Story (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)
• Lynne Harley, What If You Could? (self-published)

Children’s Middle Grade Book

• Colleen Nelson & Kathie MacIsaac, If You Can Dream It, You Can Do It: How 25 Inspiring Individuals Found Their Dream Jobs (Pajama Press)

Young Adult Book

• Lorna Schultz Nicholson, Behind the Label: Gloria and Willa (Red Deer Press)
• Matt Hughes, The Emir’s Falcon (Shadowpaw Press)

Correction, June 16, 2023: Thirteen, not twelve Canadian authors have been shortlisted for the 2023 High Plains Book Awards. Brady Harrison’s short story collection The Term Between was initially not included in the list.