Congratulations to Marlis Wesseler who has won the 2018 High Plains Book Award—Best Book by a Woman Writer for her book The Last Chance Ladies' Book Club, published by Signature Editions. The High Plains Book Awards recognize regional authors and/or literary works which examine and reflect life on the High Plains including the US states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

George Amabile has won the 2018 F.G. Bressani Literary Prize for his poetry collection Martial Music.

Signature Editions has thee titles shortlisted for the 2018 Manitoba Book Awards
We hope to see our Winnipeg peeps at the Manitoba Book Awards this Friday, June 15 to cheer on our 3 shortlisted titles:
Tenille K. Campbell's#IndianLovePoems up for the Mary Scorer Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher
Ted Landrum's Midway Radicals & Archi-Poems up for the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry
Jim Nason's Spirit of a Hundred Thousand Dead Animals up for the Manuela Dias Book Design Award
Awards will be handed out this Friday, June 15 at the Manitoba Book Awards Gala
7:00 PM – 10:00 PM at Robert B. Schultz Lecture Theatre 91 Ralph Campbell Rd., Winnipeg
Tickets available online through eventbrite.ca

Congratulations to Marlis Wesseler who has been shortlisted for the 2018 High Plains Book Awards in the category Woman Writer for her book The Last Chance Ladies' Book Club, published by Signature Editions. The High Plains Book Awards recognize regional authors and/or literary works which examine and reflect life on the High Plains including the US states of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.

A big congratulations to Tenille Campbell on her selection as a finalist for the inaugural Emerging Indigenous Voices prizes! And a hearty congratulations to all the deserving finalists.

The finalists for the inaugural Emerging Indigenous Voices prizes have been announced. In its first year, $25,000 will be distributed to winners in seven categories, as selected by jurors Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Gregory Scofield, Jean Sioui, and Richard Van Camp. A gala event will take place on May 29 in Regina.

Most Significant Work of Prose in English by an Emerging Indigenous Writer • Carleigh Baker, Bad Endings (Anvil Press)
• Dawn Dumont, Glass Beads (Thistledown Press)
• Aviaq Johnston, Those Who Run in the Sky (Inhabit Media)
• Joanne Robertson, The Water Walker (Second Story Press)

Most Significant Work of Prose in French by an Emerging Indigenous Writer
• Naomie Fontaine, Manikanetish (Memoire d’Encrier)
• J. D. Kurtness, De Vengeance (L’Instant Meme)

Best Unpublished Poetic Piece in French
• Marie-Andrée Gill, “Uashteu”

Most Significant Work in an Alternative Format by an Emerging Indigenous Writer
• Keith Barker, This is How We Got Here (Playwrights Canada)
• Cliff Cardinal, Huff & Stitch  (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Mich Cota, Musical Selections o Heather Igloliorte, Sakkijâjuk (Goose Lane Editions)
• Mika Lafond, Nipê Wânîn (Thistledown Press)

Most Significant Work of Poetry in English by an Emerging Indigenous Writer
• Billy-Ray Belcourt, This Wound is a World (Frontenac House)
• Tenille K. Campbell, #IndianLovePoems (Signature Editions)
• Joshua Whitehead, full-metal indigiqueer (Talon Books)

Unpublished Poetic Piece(s) by an Emerging Indigenous Writer
• David Agecoutay, “Poetic Selections”
• Brandi Bird “Two Poems”
• Francine Merasty “Poetry of a Northern Rez Girl”
• Smokii Sumac, “#haikuaday and other poems”

Unpublished Prose Piece by an Emerging Indigenous Writer
• Treena Chambers, “Hair Raizing”
• Elaine McArthur, “Queen Bee”
• Tom Nazbah, “The Hand Trembler”
• Amanda Peters, “Pejipug (Winter Arrives)”

–Quill & Quire May 18, 2018

Tenille K. Campbell takes home both the First Book Award and the Indigenous Peoples' Writing Award for #IndianLovePoems at the Saskatchewan Book Awards! Congratulations, Tenille!

The Saskatchewan Book Awards marked 25 years of excellence in writing and publishing in this province, handing out this year’s annual awards in 13 categories on the weekend.

Debut author Tenille Campbell, poet Beth Goobie, and previous winning author Trevor Herriot each took home two awards at the ceremony, which attracted some 300 book lovers to the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina.
–Regina Leader-Post April 30, 2018

Last Chance Ladies' Book Club shortlisted for three awards at the Saskatchewan Book Awards Dawn Dumont has been nominated for four Saskatchewan Book Awards for her short-story collection The Glass Beads (Thistledown Press), making the Plains Cree author the most celebrated at this year’s literary prizes. Naturalist Trevor Herriot is shortlisted for three awards for the Islands of Grass(Coteau Books), featuring photographs of the prairie grasslands by photographer Branimir Gjetvaj. Also shortlisted for three awards is Marlis Wesseler for her novel, The Last Chance Ladies’ Book Club (Signature Editions). A full list of nominees in all 13 categories is available on the awards’ website. Winners will be announced April 28 at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina. Quill & Quire Feb.26.17

Congratulations to Roland Vandal on being one of Our Manitoba Heroes for 2017!
"Our Manitoba Heroes recognize individuals in our province who make an impact in our communities and our 2017 Heroes are no exception...Thank you to our Heroes for all that they do. Your selfless efforts continue to inspire us all to make a difference!"

https://www.facebook.com/ManitobaHeroes/

Rob McLennan's Blog: 12 or 20 (second series) questions with Lise Gaston David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any other forms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art? "Cityscapes was heavily influenced not by any specific work of art, but by historical ways of seeing, particularly the picturesque movement, with its romanticization of ruin, its coloured glasses. My work is influenced by place in general, whether urban or “natural”—I’m particularly intrigued by how unclean those categories are." View Lise's full interview at: http://robmclennan.blogspot.ca/2017/08/12-or-20-second-series-questions-with_6.html

Tenille talks with UMFM's Jesse A. Thistle for At The Edge Of Canada: Indigenous Research. Click the link to listen to the podcast! http://archive.umfm.com/podcast_downloads/20170717-341.mp3
(MP3 file, 29 minutes)

#IndianLovePoems is #65 on CBC's list of The Great Canadian reading list: 150 books to read for Canada 150.

Read the full list at: http://www.cbc.ca/books/the-great-canadian-reading-list-150-books-to-read-for-canada-150-1.4212815

The 2017 East Coast Literary Awards announce Jennifer Houle as winner of the J.M. Abraham Poetry Award for her debut collection, The Back Channels.