Ottawa – Fans of fiction and non-fiction alike received valuable recommendations for their winter reading lists today as the City announced the finalists for the 2016 Ottawa Book Awards and Prix du livre d’Ottawa.
The awards recognize the top English and French books published in the past year by local authors. Finalists include 19 prominent authors from Ottawa’s thriving literary community.
2016 Ottawa Book Awards finalists:
English Fiction
- Nina Berkhout, The Gallery of Lost Species
(House of Anansi Press)
- Rhonda Douglas, Welcome to the Circus
(Freehand Books)
- Mark Frutkin, Hermit Thrush
(Quattro Books)
- Elizabeth Hay, His Whole Life
(McClelland & Stewart)
- Nadine McInnis, Delirium for Solo Harp
(Buschek Books)
English Non-Fiction
- Charlie Angus, Children of the Broken Treaty
(University of Regina Press)
- Tim Cook, Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War, 1944-1945
(Allen Lane Canada (Penguin Canada))
- Norman Hillmer, O.D. Skelton: A Portrait of Canadian Ambition
(University of Toronto Press)
- Roy MacGregor, Canoe Country: The Making of Canada
(Penguin Random House of Canada)
- Dan Rubinstein, Born to Walk: The Transformative Power of a Pedestrian Act
(ECW Press)
2016 Prix du livre d’Ottawa finalists:
French Fiction
- François Baril Pelletier. Déserts bleus
(Les Éditions David)
- Pierre-Luc Bélanger, Ski, Blanche et avalanche
(Les Éditions David)
- Pierre-Luc Landry, Les corps extraterrestres
(Éditions Druide)
- Gilles Latour, Mots qu'elle a faits terre
(Les Éditions L’Interligne)
- Michèle Matteau, Le long hiver du jardinier
(Les Éditions L’Interligne)
French Non-Fiction
- Jean Mohsen Fahmy, Chrétiens d'Orient, le courage et la foi
(Médiaspaul)
- Jean-Daniel Lafond, Un désir d'Amérique, fragments nomades
(Edito (Gallimard))
- Patricia Smart, De Marie de l'Incarnation à Nelly Arcan
(Éditions du Boréal)
- Catherine Voyer-Léger, Métier critique
(Éditions du Septentrion - Hamac)
Descriptions of short-listed books and author biographies are available on ottawa.ca.
The winners of each category will be announced at the awards ceremony, which will take place at Ottawa City Hall on Wednesday, October 19 at 7 p.m. in Jean Pigott Place. Each winner will receive $7,500, while finalists will each receive $1,000.
Past winners of the Ottawa Book Awards include Scott Randall, Heather Menzies, David O’Meara, Jamieson Findlay, Brian Doyle and Frances Itani. Past winners of the Prix du livre d’Ottawa include Blaise Ndala, Philippe Bernier Arcand, Estelle Beauchamp, Daniel Poliquin, Margaret Michèle Cook and Maurice Henrie.
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