Westwood would like to congratulate Allan Levine, whose beautiful book, Toronto: Biography of a City, published by Douglas & McIntyre, has been nominated for The Heritage Toronto Awards.

“In [his book], Allan explores four centuries of the city’s history through anecdotal vignettes addressing themes of politics, transportation, public health, ethnic diversity, and sports, and highlighting the interesting characters who inhabited and enlivened the city.”

The Heritage Toronto Awards recognize individuals and community organizations, as well as industry professionals and associations, for exceptional contributions in five categories:  Community Heritage, Media, Book, Short Publication and Architectural Conservation and Craftsmanship. A full list of nominees are here.

Westwood Creative Artists is so proud to announce that Clifford Jackman’s Western novel, The Winter Family, has been nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize this year.

The longlist was announced on Wednesday, September 9, 2015, at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

The Winter Family is a bracing Western noir that traces a group of ruthless owutlaws from its genesis during the American Civil War all the way to a final bloody stand in the Oklahoma territories.

You can purchase Jackman’s debut novel directly from the publisher, Penguin Random House, here.

“Clifford Jackman’s novel somehow manages to be both traditional and eerily unique. Think of it as a combination of High Noon and The Shining.”

-Jeff Guinn, author of the novel Glorious, and the bestselling history The Last Gun Fight

Earlier his week we received a final thumbs up from our favourite hitchhiking robot, hitchBOT, who, despite being destroyed beyond repair, assured us that its “love for humans will never fade.”

hitchBOT’s road trip across the United States started on July 17th and ended two weeks later, in the early hours of August 1st, while it waited for its next ride in Philadelphia. The Canadian robot had successfully hitchhiked across Canada in 2014 and throughout Europe earlier this year.

“As researchers, we wanted to know, ‘can robots trust humans?’ and knew there would always be the possibility that hitchBOT would be damaged or stolen,” says Dr. David Harris Smith, assistant professor at McMaster University and hitchBOT co-creator, in a press release that discusses what’s next for the robot. hitchBOT fans are reassured that a future reboot is likely and a number of options are currently being considered for 2016.

A guestbook has been created and fans are encouraged to share their memories of hitchBOT here.

Cartoon from The New Yorker

The shortlist for the 2015 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction was announced today by Wilfrid Laurier University and includes two WCA authors, Judy McFarlane and Mark Sakamoto.

The $10,000 award recognizes Canadian writers for work of creative non-fiction that includes a Canadian locale and/or significance.

Judy McFarlane is nominated for her book, Writing With Grace: A Journey Beyond Down  Syndrome, published by Douglas & McIntyre.

Mark Sakamoto is nominated for his book, Forgiveness: A Gift from My Grandparents, published by HarperCollins.

You can find more information on the award here.

Westwood Creative Artists, Canada’s largest literary agency representing more than 400 writers, is looking for a candidate to fill a full-time 12 week internship position, beginning August 24^th and ending November 13^th.

A considerable amount of time during this internship will be spent working with WCA’s  international rights manager and rights assistant in preparation for the Frankfurt Book Fair in October. There will also be the opportunity to work with other WCA agents and at the reception desk. In the rights department, the intern will be involved in catalogue proofreading, general preparation and follow-up for the Frankfurt Book Fair, draft international submission letters, and deal with scouts and co-agents around the world on a daily basis. There will also be some data entry and other administrative tasks. While working with individual agents, the intern will understand how the agent manages his or her authors, learn about Canadian and US submissions, and provide needed support in a varied number of capacities. At the reception desk, the intern will really be at the “nerve centre” of the agency. Tasks will include daily administration work, reading submissions, and receiving authors and publishers as they arrive at the agency.

We offer a competitive honorarium of $1500, a lively and congenial work environment at Spadina and Harbord, and an excellent opportunity to gain an overview of the publishing industry in Canada and abroad through the lens of the literary agent and the writers we represent.

The ideal candidate will be eager to learn, highly organized, energetic, and have a positive outlook. Strong proofreading and computer skills required; previous office experience and knowledge of the publishing industry an asset; passionate attention to detail and accuracy a must. Please send your resume and cover letter to the attention of Carolyn Forde at Carolyn@wcaltd.com at your earliest convenience or by July 22^nd. We appreciate all applications but will only reply to candidates selected for an interview.

Westwood is delighted to report that Darren Greer was awarded The Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia (WFNS) Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award for his novel, Just Beneath My Skin (Cormorant Books). Other authors up for the award included Michael Crummey and David Adams Richardss

The shortlists for the 2015 East Coast Literary Awards were released in May and the winners announced during a celebration on Saturday, June 6, 2015 at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, NS.

The Awards Program celebrates and promotes excellence in writing from Canada’s Atlantic region. This year’s shortlist and winners included remarkable works written by Atlantic Canadians and published in 2014.

For more information on the 2015 East Coast Literary Awards, click here.

Just Beneath My Skin has also been chosen as Nova Scotia’s One Book One Province read for this year.

Indigo CEO Heather Reisman has chosen Melvis And Elvis by Dennis Lee, illustrated by bestselling Jeremy Tankard, as one of her “Heather’s Picks” for Summer 2015.

Melvis And Elvis is the Canadian kidslit legend’s first new children’s collection in more than a decade.

Listen to Reisman present the book on Canada A.M.with so much enthusiasm.

Congrats to Dennis and Jeremy!

The Arthur Ellis Award winners were announced last night, May 28, 2015, at a special awards ceremony held at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto. Among the winners were Charlotte Gray, Steve Burrows, and Elle Wild.

Charlotte Gray won Best Nonfiction Book for The Massey Murder: A Maid, her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Country (HarperCollins)

Steve Burrows won Best First Novel for A Siege of Bitterns (Dundurn Press)

Elle Wild won the Unhanged Arthur for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel for Strange Things Done

Congratulations to all the winners! And congratulations to all nominees, it was a fantastic shortlist!

Westwood is proud to announce that Elizabeth Renzetti, Kim Fu, Ghalib Islam, and Steve Burrows have been nominated for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize!

The annual award, designed to kick-start the careers of debut authors, will award a $10,000 CAD cash prize to a book in each of three categories: Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction (beginning with Mystery this year), and Non-Fiction.

Our authors have been nominated in the following categories:

Literary Fiction

• Based on a True Story by Elizabeth Renzetti – House of Anansi Press
• For Today I Am a Boy by Kim Fu – HarperCollins Canada
• Fire In The Unnameable Country by Ghalib Islam – Penguin Canada

Fiction (Mystery)

• A Siege of Bitterns: A Birder Murder Mystery by Steve Burrows – Dundurn

The shortlist, selected by Kobo’s team of booksellers and taking into consideration book completion rates, customer ratings and reviews, comprises five books in each genre. The shortlist will now move on to the final selection process, led by top Canadian authors: Charlotte Gray for Non-Fiction, Miriam Toews for Literary Fiction, and Ian Hamilton for Genre Fiction (Mystery), with winners announced on July 7.

For the complete shortlist, click here.