We are excited to announce Ann Y.K. Choi’s novel Kay’s Luck Coin Variety has been shortlisted for a 2016 Toronto Book Award.
Established by the Toronto City Council in 1974 the Toronto Book Award acknowledges authors of books that have literary merit and are evocative of Toronto.
What the Judges said about Choi’s coming-of-age novel:
“Ann Y.K. Choi’s debut novel is a vivid depiction of two generations clashing and caring for each other on a dangerous street corner in 1980s Toronto. Mary is determined to evade her fate, which means making some risky choices. Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety is unsentimental, bracing and beautifully balanced, a story that reveals the true costs of shifting between two names and two cultures.”
Congrats to internationally bestselling author Gail Anderson-Dargatz whose book The Spawning Grounds was voted number one favourite adult fiction for September by Canadian librarians. Rooted in the Thompson-Shuswap region of British Columbia, The Spawning Grounds tells the story of a troubled family, a torn nation, and a dying river.
Loan Stars, a readers’ advisory service brings together the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, BookNet Canada, the British Columbia Library Association Readers’ Advisory Committee, the Ontario Library Association Readers’ Advisory Committee, library vendors, independent Canadian publishers, and multi-national publishers. Using an online catalogue tool, library staff nominate their favourite adult titles, the most popular titles are marketed to libraries and library users.
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 Monday August 22nd and ending Friday November 11th.
A considerable amount of time during this internship will be spent working with WCA’s international rights director 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. 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 cover letter, resume, and references to the attention of Carolyn Forde at Carolyn@wcaltd.com at your earliest convenience or by July 18th. We appreciate all applications but will only reply to candidates selected for an interview.
Big congratulations to Wab Kinew for winning the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize
in the Nonfiction category for his memoir, The Reason You Walk!
This is the second annual Emerging Writer Prize and Kobo announced the winners on June 21, 2016. The prizes are awarded to the best debut books of the year in literary fiction, romance and nonfiction categories. A winning book in each category was chosen by established and respected Canadian authors, giving the debut writers an impressive vote of confidence from those at the top of their field.
Camilla Gibb, the judge for the Nonfiction category, said this of Kinew’s memoir:
“Wab Kine
w’s story is a deeply moving memoir about the possibility of forgiveness and healing within a family, a community and a country coming to terms with the damaging legacy of the residential school system. The son of an Anishinaabe chief and a non-native woman, Kinew moves within two worlds, as did his father, both seeking to reconcile conflicting parts of selves shaped by different cultural forces. Wab Kinew’s book is a gift to this country.”
We are so excited and proud of Susan Juby, winner of the 69th Leacock Medal for Humour for her novel, The Republic of Dirt!
The medal and the accompanying prize were awarded June 11, 2016 at a gala dinner at Geneva Park Conference Centre near Orillia, Ontario. The dinner celebrated all three shortlisted authors, which included Terry Fallis for Poles Apart and Sarah Mian for When the Saints.
Read Susan Juby’s thank you note here.
We are so excited to announce that Susan Juby and Sarah Mian have been shortlisted for the 2016 Leacock Medal for Humour! The prestigious Memorial Medal, accompanied by a $15,000 prize, is awarded annually for the best in Canadian literary humour. The award has attained an international reputation and is the only one of its kind for Canadian humour writing.
Susan Juby has been nominated for Republic of Dirt, published by HarperCollins. Told in four highly distinct, unforgettably hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking voices, Republic of Dirt is about what happens when passions collide with pride and what it takes to save each other, our small part of the planet and ourselves.
Sarah Mian has been nominated for When The Saints, also published by HarperCollins.
When the Saints is her first novel and is the story of a clan of outsiders whose redemption might be found in what they longed to escape: each other.
The third book on the shortlist is Terry Fallis’ Poles Apart.
The winner will be announced at a gala dinner on Saturday, June 11, 2016 at the Geneva Park Convention Centre, just outside Orillia.
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The 2016 Atlantic Book Awards were announced Wednesday, April 27, 2016, in a gala ceremony held in New Brunswick for the first time at Moncton’s Capitol Theatre, and WCA is thrilled for Sarah Mian and Beth Powning, both big winners of the night!
Sarah Mian’s novel, When the Saints, published by HarperCollins, won both the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award. The New Brunswick Book Award for Fiction (first time awarded) went to Beth Powning for her novel, A Measure of Light, published by Knopf.
The Atlantic Book Awards Society (ABAS) is a registered non-profit organization with the mandate “to promote and acknowledge excellence in Atlantic Canadian writing and book publishing through an annual awards ceremony and related events.”
We would like to congratulate John Ibbitson, whose biography of Stephen Harper just won the Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing!
Of Stephen Harper, published by McClelland & Stewart, the jury said the following:
“The many ways in which Canada changed during Stephen Harper’s nearly 10 years in power have been well documented. But the man himself has remained a mystery. With impressive access and meticulous research, John Ibbitson writes a remarkable biography that puts us inside Harper’s head during some of the most critical moments of his life, providing the definitive picture to date of one of the most significant Prime Ministers in Canadian history. From his decision to drop out of university to his tumultuous relationship with Reform Leader Preston Manning, from his first date with Laureen to his majority win, Harper is captured magnificently in this gripping read for all Canadians. “
The finalists for the 2016 BC Book Awards have been announced and WCA would like to congratulate our many talented authors who have been nominated!
Pauline Holdstock’s gorgeous novel The Hunter and the Wild Girl, published by Goose Lane, is nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
Nominees for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize include:
- Are You Seeing Me? by Darren Groth, published by Orca Book Publishers
- Seven Dead Pirates by Linda Bailey, published by Tundra Books
- The Truth Commission by Susan Juby, published by Razorbill
- We Are All Made of Molecules by Susin Nielsen, published by Tundra Books
And last but not least, This Is Sadie by Sara O’Leary, illustrated by Julie Morstad and published by Tundra Books, is nominated for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize.
You can see a full list of the finalists here.