WCA is happy to announce that Cathy Ostlere’s Karma has been named a CLA 2012 Young Adult Book Award Honour Book.

David Bergen’s The Matter with Morris (HarperCollins Canada) has been shortlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

Bergen’s novel is the only Canadian title in the running for the prize, which awards 100,000 British pounds to the winner, and is billed as “the world’s most valuable annual literary award for a single work of fiction published in English.”

The Matter with Morris, Bergen’s sixth novel, about a middle-aged man whose son is killed in Afghanistan, made the short list for the 2010 Scotiabank Giller Prize. Bergen won the Giller in 2005 for the novel The Time in Between, which was also longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin award. His new novel, The Age of Hope, will be published by HarperCollins Canada in the fall.

For more information, please visit: http://www.impacdublinaward.ie/

All of us at Westwood Creative Artists are deeply saddened by the passing of Josef Skvorecky. We have been honoured to represent an author of his calibre, integrity and standing.

To learn more about Mr. Skvorecky, please visit the following pages:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/giant-of-czech-literature-came-to-canada-after-1968-soviet-crackdown/article2291297/singlepage/#articlecontent

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/arts/josef-skvorecky-czech-born-writer-dies-at-87.html

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/josef-skvorecky-a-writer-between-two-worlds/article2291370/

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/skvorecky-and-havel-engineers-of-human-freedom/article2290374/

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/01/03/the-life-of-josef-skvorecky-a-testament-to-the-power-of-the-written-word-the-futility-of-censorship/

WCA is happy to announce that Ian Brown’s The Boy in the Moon has been named a Cleveland Plain Dealer Best Book of 2011. For more information, please visit:

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2011/12/best_books_of_2011_the_top_10.html

Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism, by Joel Yanofsky, has been shortlisted for the 2012 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Founded in 2004, the BC Award is one of the largest non-fiction book prizes in the country.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction/finalists.php

The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction announced on Monday its first-ever “long list” of titles contending for its top honour in 2012.

The short list will be announced on Jan. 10, 2012 and the winner on March 5, 2012.

Contenders for the $25,000 prize include titles by three WCA authors:

The Patrol: Seven Days in the Life of a Canadian Soldier in Afghanistan, by Ryan Flavelle

Nation Maker: Sir John A. MacDonald: His Life, Our Times Volume Two: 1867-1891, by Richard Gwyn

Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism, by Joel Yanofsky

WCA would like to congratulate all those nominated.

WCA is totally thrilled to announce that Ian Brown’s stunning The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son was named one of the New York Times’ Top Ten Books of the Year.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/books/10-best-books-of-2011.html?_r=1&hp

And for Ian’s NYT review, please visit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/books/review/book-review-the-boy-in-the-moon-by-ian-brown.html?_r=1

WCA is thrilled to report that five WCA titles have been named to The Globe & Mail’s Top 100 Books of 2011 list. The list follows:

Into the Heart of the Country, by Pauline Holdstock

Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, by Zsuzsi Gartner

Alone in the Classroom, by Elizabeth Hay

Winter: Five Windows on the Season – the CBC Massey Lectures, by Adam Gopnik

Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867 -1891, by Richard Gwyn

For more information, please visit:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/books/the-globe-100-the-very-best-books-of-2011/article2248133/

WCA is happy to announce that Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867–1891 by Richard Gwyn (Random House Canada) has been named a 2011 Book of the Year by Quill and Quire.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/11/29/books-of-the-year-2011-non-fiction/nationmakerjacket235w/

WCA is happy to announce that The Water Rat of Wanchai by Ian Hamilton has been listed as one of the top 15 books of 2011 by Quill & Quire.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.quillandquire.com/blog/index.php/2011/11/28/books-of-the-year
-2011-fiction/water-rat-of-wanchai/