Lauren Carter has won the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction for This Has Nothing to Do With You (Freehand Books)! The Margaret Laurence award is given to the author whose book is judged the best book of adult fiction written in English and published in 2019, and the John Hirsch Award is granted to the most promising Manitoba writer selected by a jury of senior members of the Manitoba writing and publishing community.

This Has Nothing to Do With You is a compulsively readable novel that follows a dynamic cast of characters, revealing the complexity of the bonds that are formed through trauma and grief with siblings, lovers, friends, and dogs.

Lauren Carter is the author of four books including the novels This Has Nothing To Do With You and Swarm and the poetry collections Following Sea and Lichen Bright. Her first novel, Swarm, was on CBC’s list of 40 novels that could change Canada. In 2014, her short story “Rhubarb” won top place in the Prairie Fire fiction prize and appeared in the annual Best Canadian Stories (edited by John Metcalf). Her work has also been nominated for the Journey Prize and longlisted multiple times for the CBC Literary Prizes in both poetry and fiction while also earning multiple grants, including the Manitoba Arts Council Major Arts Award, given to Manitoba artists whose creative work shows “exceptional quality and accomplishment.”  Lauren is represented by Samantha Haywood.

The North-West is Our Mother by Jean Teillet (HarperCollins Canada) has won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, which is given to the book that most evokes the special character of and contributes to the appreciation and understanding of the city of Winnipeg!

The North-West is Our Mother is a history of the Métis Nation. It begins in the early 1800s, when the Métis became known as fierce nomadic hunters, and continues to the late 19th-century resistance led by Riel to reclaim the land stolen from them, all the way to present day as they fight for reconciliation and decolonization.

Jean Teillet is a lawyer who specializes in aboriginal rights litigation and negotiations and is currently the chief negotiator for the Stó:lo Xwexwilmexw. She is published in many journals and law books and is the author of the annually updated Métis Law in Canada.  In addition to her aboriginal rights work, Jean is an adjunct professor at the UBC Faculty of Law and is the great grand niece of Louis Riel. Jean is represented by Samantha Haywood.

To see the full list of winners, please visit:  https://www.manitobabookawards.com/index.php/en/

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