The Book Publishers Association of Alberta has announced the shortlist for the 2020 Alberta Book Publishing Awards, and three Transatlantic clients have made the cut! Established in 1994, these annual awards recognize and celebrate the best of the Alberta book publishing industry.
This Has Nothing to Do With You by Lauren Carter (Freehand Books) has been nominated for the Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence. 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.” She grew up in Blind River, ON, and has lived in the Greater Toronto Area and The Pas, MB. She currently resides in St. Andrews, MB.
The Student by Cary Fagan (Freehand Books) has been nominated in the category of trade fiction. The Student is a compassionate and compelling work of fiction that brings together two pivotal times in history. With its innovative structure, masterful prose, and intelligently crafted characters, this book illustrates how we are shaped by – and can eventually overcome – the constraints of the times we occupy.
Cary Fagan is the author of six novels and three story collections for adults, as well as many award-winning books for children. His books include A Bird’s Eye (finalist for the Rogers Trust Fiction Prize, an Amazon.ca Best Book of the Year), My Life Among the Apes (longlisted for the Giller Prize, Amazon.ca Best 100 Books of 2013), and The Student (shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award and the Toronto Book Award). Cary was born and raised in Toronto, where he lives with his family.
Agnes, Murderess by Sarah Leavitt (Freehand Books) has been nominated in two categories: speculative fiction and book illustration. Agnes, Murderess is a graphic novel inspired by the bloody legend of Agnes McVee, a roadhouse owner, madam and serial killer in the Cariboo region of British Columbia in the late nineteenth century. Fascinated by this legend?which originated in a 1970s guide to buried treasure in BC, and has never been verified?Sarah Leavitt has imagined an entirely new story for the mysterious Agnes: her immigration to Canada from an isolated Scottish Island; her complex entanglement with shiny things; and her terrifying grandmother, Gormul, who haunts Agnes’s dreams and waking life.
Sarah Leavitt is the author of Tangles: A Story of Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me and Agnes, Murderess. Tangles was published in Canada, the US, the UK, Germany, France, and Korea, and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize in 2010. It is currently in development as a feature-length animation. Leavitt teaches comics classes at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
All three authors are represented by Samantha Haywood.
To see the full list of nominees, please visit: https://bookpublishers.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-Alberta-Book-Publishing-Awards-Shortlist-Media-Release3.pdf