Roy MacGregor’s Original Highways: Travelling the Great Rivers of Canada is the winner of the 2018 Ottawa Book Award for English Non-Fiction.

Here’s what the jury had to say:

“Whether they be glamorous, powerful or recovering from a fetid past, Roy MacGregor masterfully conveys the beauty and fragility of the 16 rivers whose characters he portrays in Original Highways. This unique history of place and people from the geological past to the present day offers a heart-felt call to cherish the precious resource of these waterways. By turns fascinating, funny and poignant, this book is a vivid and compelling read.”

Jury members: Pius Adesanmi, Sylvia Barrett, Suzanne Evans

David Chariandy’s celebrated novel Brother won the 2018 Toronto Book Awards. Since publication in 2017 the novel, set in Scarborough, has won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and was longlisted for the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

What the Jury said:

“In a near flawless piece of writing, David Chariandy brings readers to a story that may very well feel both foreign and familiar. Brother, his second novel, is a lean masterwork driven by spare, painstakingly-crafted prose. No word is wasted in this book, and every word leaves a mark. In this world-building, or perhaps world-revealing novel, Chariandy casts off tropes that readers may expect from a story about family, violence, loss, and survival, and lets the heart of the novel, and its fully-drawn characters, dictate the course of the narrative. This book has already become part of the Toronto literary canon, and should reside there for ages.”

Congratulations to all of the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Awards finalists! We’re especially thrilled to see books from so many WCA authors make it this far.

Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom by Jordan Tannahill in the category of Drama.

Mamaskatch by Darrel J. McLeod in the category of Non-Fiction.

Winnie’s Great War by Lindsay Mattick and Josh Greenhut, illustrated by Sophie Blackall in the category of Young People’s Literature.

Go Show the World by Wab Kinew, illustrated by Joe Morse in the category of Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books.

All Things Consoled, Elizabeth Hay’s startling and beautiful memoir about the drama of her parents’ end, is a finalist for the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Jury Citation:

“Elizabeth Hay’s loving, exacting memoir, All Things Consoled, details the decline of her elderly parents with unflinching tenderness. The path she and her family travel is crooked and long, filled with hospital beds and doctors’ visits, foggy minds, and shuffling confusion. But Hay’s prose elevates this ordinary rite of passage — the death of one’s parents — to something rare and poetic.”

Congratulations to humanitarian doctor and activist James Maskalyk whose book Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine has been shortlisted for the 2018 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction. Maskalyk, deemed “A master of the medical memoir,” by the Toronto Star, won the 2017 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Award-winning author Shyam Selvadurai and internationally acclaimed director Deepa Mehta are bringing the national bestseller Funny Boy to the screen. The novel, set in the seven years leading up to the 1983 riots in Sri Lanka, has been selected for funding by CBC Films and will begin production in February 2019.

We’re delighted to share that two WCA authors have been nominated for 2018 Canadian Children’s Book Centre book awards. When the Moon Comes, illustrated by Matt James, is up for the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. The Jury said, “James’ strong illustrations emphasize the beauty of winter, the wonder of a dark night, the power of the moon and the fun of an escapade with friends.”

Darren Groth’s YA novel Munro Vs. the Coyote has been nominated for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. Here’s what the Jury had to say: “Groth offers readers a thoughtful and ultimately uplifting story about grief and healing, as well as difference and acceptance… Groth skillfully illustrates the personal challenges each person faces in dealing with trauma and loss, and reminds readers that while the journey to healing isn’t ever easy or straightforward, time and refocused energy can lessen the pain.”

Congratulations to actor, musician and novelist, Joel Thomas Hynes on winning the 2018 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award in the category of fiction!

The jury called Hyne’s novel We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night, “An exceedingly well-paced narrative that never falls apart. It is bleak and uncompromising: ‘The Odyssey’ of modern Newfoundland fiction by way of ‘Huckleberry Finn.'”

WCA mourns the premature passing of gifted novelist, poet, essayist and playwright Priscila Uppal. Always curious, always questioning; she mined every challenge for its creative opportunities. She had so much more still to say and contribute…this is a sad day for all of us here at WCA, and for the wide circle of people whose lives Priscila touched.

Congratulations to Joel Thomas Hynes, a finalist for the 2018 Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for Fiction for We’ll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night.

The jury said of Hyne’s novel, “An exceedingly well-paced narrative that never falls apart. It is bleak and uncompromising: ‘The Odyssey’ of modern Newfoundland fiction by way of ‘Huckleberry Finn.'”