Kings County Academy in Kentville, Nova Scotia recently hosted a celebration, including Education Minister Ramona Jennex and Human Rights Commission CEO David Shannon, to honour Roll On: Rick Hansen Wheels Around the World. The book’s illustrator, Ron Lightburn (himself a resident of Coldbrook, NS), gave a talk about how he created the illustrations, read a passage from the book, and signed copies of it for the school.

The Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development recently announced that 420 copies of the book, written by Ainslie Manson, were distributed to 360 schools across the province.

The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) have announced the shortlists for their 2013 awards, and two out of the three choices for the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award are Keir Lowther and Russell Wangersky, our very own Transatlantic clients.  Lowther’s Dirty Bird (Tightrope Books), Wangersky’s Whirl Away (Thomas Allen & Son) and Donna Morrissey’s The Deception of Livvy Higgs (Penguin Group) are the three finalist titles.

The award, named for the late Nova Scotia author Thomas Raddall, is for the best work of adult fiction published in the previous year by a writer from the Atlantic provinces. Winners will be announced and awards presented at the WFNS Literary Awards Ceremony in Halifax on September 21, following a day of public events and readings celebrating the awards. The shortlisted writers will appear at Halifax’s Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival on Sunday September 22.

Keir Lowther and Russell Wangersky are represented by Shaun Bradley.

Film rights to the psychological thriller QUIVER by Holly Luhning about Elizabeth Bathroy, the 16th century Hungarian Blood Countess and a young Canadian forensic psychologist who becomes the target of a gothic cult in contemporary London England that are re-enacting Bathroy’s ritualized killings, to Nick Sorbara of Magnet Films by Samantha Haywood.

Giller longlisted author Martha Baillie’s new untitled novel is a sophisticated story with magical underpinnings about a young man who escapes the claustrophobia of small-town Germany by traveling to Canada, where he sets out on a long solo hike into the interior of Baffin Island; while he is hiking, time plays tricks on him and when he returns to the isolated town of Pangnirtung, where his hike began, he discovers that thirty years have vanished and though he has not aged, the rest of the world has sped forward to 2010.

US rights to Meg Storey of Tin House Books for Fall 2014 by Samantha Haywood.

(Canadian rights presently available)

Transatlantic congratulates Emily Schultz whose novel THE BLONDES (Doubleday Canada) is a finalist for the 2013 Trillium Book Award.

Emily Schultz’s beautifully realized novel is a mix of satire, thriller, and serious literary work. With echoes of Blindness and The Handmaid’s Tale amplified by a biting satiric wit, The Blondes is at once an examination of the complex relationships between women, and a merciless but giddily enjoyable portrait of what happens in a world where beauty is–literally–deadly.

World Rights Available Ex:
Canada English, Doubleday
Canada French, Editions Alto
US, Thomas Dunne Books, Spring 2014

Represented by Shaun Bradley.

The public is invited to attend an event on June 17, 2013 where the Trillium Book Award finalists will read from their nominated works. The event will be held in the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon, Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, (doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the readings begin at 7:00 p.m.).

On June 18, 2013 the Hon. Michael Chan, Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, will announce the winners in Toronto at an awards presentation dinner.

Only six English and five French books have been shortlisted.

“This year’s Trillium Book Award shortlist reflects the remarkable breadth, depth and diversity of Ontario’s authors. Our province is very fortunate to be home to literary talent that is enjoyed around the world. Congratulations to the finalists for their magnificent achievement – and also to the publishers who support and nurture them.”
— Kevin Shea, Chair, Ontario Media Development Corporation

More information about The Trillium Book Award can be found here: www.omdc.on.ca