April 1, 2010. Yesterday the Writers Guild of Alberta announced this years shortlist for the Alberta Literary Awards. We are pleased to congratulate several of our member publishers and their authors on being nominated.

Our congratulations go out to:

Dianne Linden for Shimmerdogs / Thistledown Press / R. Ross Annettt Award for Children's Literature

Linda Smith for The Broken Thread / Coteau Books / R. Ross Annettt Award for Children's Literature

Michael Davie for Fishing for Bacon / NeWest Press / Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

Cecelia Frey for A Raw Mix of Carelessness and Longing / Brindle & Glass / Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

Lori Hahnel for Nothing Sacred / Thistledown Press / Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

Beth Grahan for The Drowning Girls, from The Drowning Girls/Comrades / Playwrights Canada Press / Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama

March 15, 2010. Congratulations to Guy Maddin and Coach House Books for the nomination of My Winnipeg for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award.

My Winnipeg is a book based on Maddin's last film, a documentary (of sorts) by the same name (which was named by Roger Ebert as one of the Top Ten Films of the past decade!). The book takes the film as its starting point, then includes the many, many things Maddin could not fit into the film: marginal digressions, stills, outtakes, childhood photos, animations, diary entries, collages, archival images, and nascent treatments.

March 15, 2010. Last week the Salty Ink announced the winner of its 'Judge a Book by its Cover Competition' and we're pleased to congratulate Invisible Publishing, designer Megan Fildes and artist Sydney Smith for Migration Songs being chosen.

Migration Songs is the lovely debut novel by Anna Quon. It is the story of thirty-yeay-old Joan, cough drop addict, school bus driver, and mixed race daughter of a Maoist English father and a Chinese-Canadian mother. She is struggling for meaning after a friend's death reveals a secret life.

For more information on the contest, visit Salty Ink.

March 5, 2010. Congratulations to Randall Maggs and Brick Books for winning the 3rd Kobzar Literary Award for Night Work: The Terry Sawchuk Poems. The award was presented at a gala ceremony in Toronto on March 4th.

Night Work is comprised of compact, conversational poems that build into a narrative long poem, following the tragic trajectory of the life and work of Terry Sawchuk, dark driven genius of a goalie who survived twenty tough seasons in an era of inadequate upper-body equipment and no player representation. 

March 4, 2010. Yesterday the 2010 nominees for the 11 Atlantic Books Awards were announced by the Atlantic Books Awards Society.

We offer our congratulations to several of our publishers and authors who have had their books nominated for an award:

Trudy J Morgan-Cole & Breakwater Books Ltd - By the Rivers of Brooklyn - for the APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award

Tonja Gunvaldsen Klaassen & Gaspereau Press - Lean-To - for the Atlantic Poetry Prize

Zachariah Wells & Biblioasis - Track & Trace - for the Atlantic Poetry Prize

George Elliot Clarke & Goose Lane Editions - / & / - for the Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)

March 2, 2010. Congratulations to both Myrna Kostash and Michael Davie for their nominations for the inaugural Alberta Readers' Choice Award!

The Frog Lake Reader by Myrna Kostash, from Edmonton, gives a masterful account of the 1885 Cree uprising known as the Frog Lake Massacre.

Calgary's Michael Davie penned Fishing for Bacon, his first novel about hapless teen Bacon Sobelowski in this funny coming-of-age romp.

February 22, 2010. Congratulations to David Matas and David Kilgour, authors of Bloody Harvest: The killing of Falun Gong for their organs, published by Seraphim Editions on their nomination for a 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Matas, a Winnipeg laywer, and Kilgour, a former federal Alberta MP, have been investigating this issue since 2006. They have reported their findings in a few different reports, and now this book, as well as travelling to countries all over the world to help bring awareness to this situation.

The Falun Gong are a members of a spiritual movement that began in the early 90s in China before being labelled a cult by the government in 1999. Followers of the movement were then jailed, tortured, and executed, their organs being sold for organ transplants.

February 18, 2010. We're so excited to congratulate both Carla Gunn and Michael Tregebov on their nominations for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best First Book Award, Canada and the Caribbean. The shortlists for all the regional awards were announced earlier today.

February 16, 2010. Congratulations to David Nickle and ChiZine Publications on the Black Quill Award for Monstrous Affections. The collection of creepy short stories won the Readers Choice Award for Best Dark Genre Fiction Collection. I'm sure the captivating cover helped the readers make their decisions!

Here's what people are saying about Monstrous Affections:

February 10, 2010. Yesterday, the Afterword, the National Post's book blog announced the finalists for the first Canada Also Reads competition, a shadow competition of the popular CBC Canada Reads showdown that takes place every year. The LPG is very excited that one of our members, Invisible Publishing, has a title competiting -- Zoe Whittall will champion Fear of Fighting by Stacey May Fowles, with pictures by Marlena Zuber.

Essays defending each title will be posted on the Afterword, beginning March 1st. The contest concludes with a public poll so make sure to vote for Fear of Fighting!

For more information on the competition, go here.