COLES AND DOYLE GOING HEAD TO HEAD AGAIN FOR ATLANTIC BOOK AWARD

Just last month Megan Gail Coles won the $20,000 Winterset Award for the best book of the year out of Newfoundland. To win the Winterset, she beat out the two giants she was shortlisted alongside: Michael Crummey, for his latest novel Sweetland, and Great Big Sea’s Alan Doyle, for his Memoir, Where I Belong. Once again, Coles and Doyle have found themselves on a shortlist together. This time, for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award – an award given to the best debut of the year by an Atlantic Canadian. Will Coles defeat Doyle a second time, or will this end in a democratic tie game? You’ll have to wait ‘til May 14th to see. The more important question is, Have you read her great book yet? (Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome.)

6 OTHER LOCALS UP FOR ATLANTIC BOOK AWARDS; TRUDY MORGAN-COLE FOR A THIRD TIME IN A ROW

The Atlantic Book Awards are a conglomerate of 8 awards, to be doled out together at the same gala event in Halifax on the 14th. In addition to Meg Coles and Alan Doyle being on the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, six other locals are in the running for an Atlantic Book Award. Andy Jones is once again on a children’s book award shortlist, this time the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature, for Jack, the King of Ashes. Janet McNaughton is on the same shortlist, for her book, Dear Canada: Flame and Ashes: The Great Fire Diary of Triffie Winsor. Both novelist Trudy Morgan-Cole & chef Mark Crowe are on the Best Atlantic-Published Book Award shortlist, for their respective books A Sudden Sun and Island Kitchen. This is the third time, for her third book in a row, that Trudy is up for this award. Jenny Higgins is on the Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing shortlist for her book Perished: The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster. Lastly, for his stunning illustrations in George Murray’s children’s book, Wow Wow and Haw Haw, Michael Pittman is up for the Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration.

2015 EJ PRATT POETRY AWARD SHORTLIST PARTICULARLY STRONG

This award – administered by the Writers’ Alliance of NL – is only doled out every two years. As a result, the EJ Pratt shortlist is always a very strong showcase of the best local poetry books of the last two years. But this strong? It’s rare to see a local shortlist so packed by icons. The 2015 EJ Pratt Poetry Award Shortlist is Michael Crummey for Under the Keel, Mary Dalton for Hooking, and Carmelita McGrath for Escape Velocity. Much pity to the jury forced to choose a winner from that lot. The winner will be announced May 27th.

DOYLE, MERLO, AND PEACOCK COMPRISE THE 2015 NL BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION

Also an every-two-years award administered by the Writers Alliance of NL, this year’s 3 finalists for the NL Book award for Non-fiction are Alan Doyle for his memoir, Where I Belong, Janet Merlo for her personal account of the sexual abuse and gender discrimination she endured during her time with the RCMP, and Andrew Peacock for Creatures of the Rock, a memoir detailing his tales of being a traveling veterinarian in Newfoundland.