Second Annual New Brunswick Book Awards
The Fiddlehead and the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick (WFNB) have announced the shortlisted titles for the second annual New Brunswick Book Awards. The winners will be announced at an awards presentation ceremony on Wednesday May 24th, at the University of New Brunswick’s Memorial Hall in Fredericton. Presenters will include winners of the first-ever awards presented last April in Moncton: Sussex author Beth Powning and Fredericton poet Travis Lane, who has another book shortlisted in this year’s poetry category.
The program celebrates books published in the 2016 calendar year and in four categories: poetry, fiction, non-fiction and children’s writing (picture books). The competition is open to traditionally published and self-published authors who have lived in the province for three of the last five years, including the award year. The finalists are as follows:
The Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction
Judge: Robin Maharaj
Riel Nason, All the Things We Leave Behind
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Kerry Lee Powell, Willem De Kooning’s Paintbrush
Publisher: HarperCollins
Roger Moore, Bistro
Publisher: Self-published
Alice Kitts Memorial Award for Excellence in Children’s Writing
Judge: Helaine Becker
Diane Carmel Leger, My Two Grandmothers
Publisher: Nimbus
Jennifer McGrath, The Snow Knows
Publisher: Nimbus
Heidi Jardine Stoddart, Sea Glass Summer
Publisher: Nimbus
The Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize
Judge: Jeramy Dodds
Wayne Clifford, The Exile’s Papers
Publisher: Porcupine’s Quill
M. Travis Lane, The Witch of the Inner Wood
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Robert Moore, Based on Actual Events
Publisher: Signal Editions
Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Book Award for Non-Fiction
Judge: Myrl Coulter
Melynda Jarratt, Letters from Beauly: Pat Hennessy and the Canadian Forestry Corps in Scotland, 1940-1945
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Bobbi-Jean McKinnon, Shadow of Doubt
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Roslyn Rosenfeld, Lucy Jarvis: Even Stones Have Life
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
About the Awards:
The book awards program represents a partnership between Canada’s oldest literary magazine, The Fiddlehead, which has nurtured New Brunswick’s literary culture for 70 years, and the Writers’ Federation, which for 30 years has passionately supported the development of home-grown writers at all stages of development.
The first-ever awards were presented at the 2016 Atlantic Book Awards Gala in Moncton last April as part of the Frye Festival. Winners were: Poetry – M. Travis Lane, Crossover (Cormorant Books); Fiction – Beth Powning, A Measure of Light (Knopf); and, Non-Fiction – Donald Savoie, What is Government Good At? (McGill-Queen’s University Press). Judges were: Poetry – Anita Lahey; Fiction – Lisa Moore; and, Non-Fiction – Jane Silcott.
