| The finalists for the 2003 Alberta Book Awards have been announced, and it’s an all-Calgary final in both the Poetry and Drama categories.
The Poetry finalists are Weyman Chan for Before A Blue Sky Moon, Nancy Jo Cullen for Science Fiction Saint, and Rajinderpal S. Pal for Pulse (and don’t forget to vote for Pal in the CBC Radio Poetry Face-off – www.artscanada.cbc.ca/faceoff, and make your selection online before Friday, April 11).
In Drama, the nominees are Doug Curtis for Mesa, Stephen Massicotte for Mary’s Wedding and Sharon Pollock for Blood Relations.
Other local writers nominated include Marie Jakober for Only Call Us Faithful in the Novel category; Sarah Murphy for Die Tinkerbell Die and Ken Rivard for Bottle Talk in the Short Fiction category; and Marcello Di Cintio in both the Best First Book and Non-fiction categories for Harmattan: Wind Across West Africa.
Calgary and area publishers also received nominations: Frontenac House for Trade Fiction and Publisher of the Year; Banff Centre Press for Trade Non-fiction and Book Cover design; McTavish and Nunn for Educational Book; Red Deer Press for Children’s Book and Book Illustration; and Broadview Press and University of Calgary Press for Scholarly Book. Three local presses – Brindle & Glass Publishing, McTavish & Nunn and Touchwood Press – are nominated in the Emerging Publisher category, which is a testament to the growth of the local publishing industry.
The complete list of nominees is available online at www.writersguild.ab.ca. This year’s Book Awards Gala will be held in Edmonton on May 10, and tickets can be ordered by calling the Writers Guild of Alberta toll-free at 1-800-665-5354 (inside Alberta) or through the Book Publishers Association of Alberta at (780) 424-5060.
And speaking of awards, congratulations to local writer Paulo da Costa, who has been named winner of the Best First Book in the Caribbean and Canada region for the Commonwealth Writers Awards. He replaces Kwame Dawes, whose book was withdrawn due to eligibility issues. The awards will be presented in Calgary on May 8 – maybe after how poorly the Flames did this year, we’ll have a new hometown favourite to cheer for.
The Writers Trust of Canada is holding a major event to celebrate "Canadian Writers’ Day" on Thursday, April 24. Authors who are interested in participating should contact Sarah Nichols at 802-0200 or via e-mail at sarah@sasscommunications.com for more details.
On Thursday, April 10, Stephen Scobie, a Governor General's Award-winning poet from Victoria, will read from his new book, The Spaces in Between, and Nina Berkhout from Winnipeg will from her book, Letters from Deadman's Cay. The reading starts at 7:30 p.m. at Pages Books on Kensington.
Also on April 10, award-winning B.C. poet and novelist Susan Musgrave will be reading at McNally Robinson Booksellers at 8 p.m. as a part of the Single Onion Poetry Series. Also reading will be Kirk Miles, Stuart Ian McKay and Patricia Robertson. Admission is free.
NeWest Press is hosting a reading event that will focus on Asian-Canadian writing, featuring Fred Wah, Larissa Lai and Tom Sando, on April 14 at 7:30 p.m. at McNally Robinson.
The Writers Guild of Alberta has started a generative writing group. The group meets weekly on Thursday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Participants write from a "trigger" for 20 minutes and then can choose whether to share what they’ve written. For more information, call Jason at 265-2226. |
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