Finalists for 2019 Ottawa Book Awards revealed

Kagiso Lesego Molope won the Ottawa Book Award for her novel This Book Betrays My Brother.

The City of Ottawa has revealed this year’s finalists for the 2019 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. Seventeen authors are on the list. 

2019 Ottawa Book Awards finalists:

English Fiction

Paul Carlucci for The High-Rise in Fort Fierce (Goose Lane Editions)

Mark Frutkin for The Rising Tide (The Porcupine’s Quill)

Kagiso Lesego Molope for This Book Betrays My Brother (Mawenzi House Publishers)

Michael F. Stewart for Ray Vs the Meaning of Life (Self-published)

Jean Van Loon for Building on River (Cormorant Books)

English Non-Fiction

Bruce Campbell for The Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster: Public Betrayal, Justice Denied (James Lorimer & Company Ltd.)

Tony Clarke for Getting to Zero: Canada Confronts Global Warming (James Lorimer & Company Ltd.)

Tim Cook for The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War (Allen Lane Canada)

Elizabeth Hay for All Things Consoled: A daughter’s memoir (McClelland & Stewart)

2019 Prix du livre d’Ottawa finalists:

French Fiction

Andrée Christensen for L’Isle aux abeilles noires (Les Éditions David)

Michelle Deshaies for XieXie (Les Éditions David)

Daniel Groleau Landry for Fragments de ciels (Les Éditions L’Interligne)

Lisa L’Heureux for Et si un soir (Les Éditions Prise de parole)

Éric Mathieu for Le Goupil (La Mèche)

French Non-Fiction

Damien-Claude Bélanger for Thomas Chapais, historien (Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa)

Maurice Henrie for Donc je suis (Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa)

Maurice Henrie for Le poids du temps (Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa)

Yvon Malette for Entre le risque et le rêve : Une brève histoire des Éditions David (Les Éditions David)

For more information about the short-listed books and the authors, please see the Ottawa Book Awards webpage.

The winners will be announced Oct. 16 at 6:30 pm at Ottawa City Hall. Winners receive $7,500, finalists each receive $1,000.

The Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry and Le Prix littéraire Émergence AAOF – 2019 will also be presented at the ceremony.

Past winners of the Ottawa Book Awards include John Metcalf, Charlotte Gray and David O’Meara. Past winners of the Prix du livre d’Ottawa include Pierre-Luc Landry, Alain Bernard Marchand and Margaret Michèle Cook.

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Peter Robb began his connection with the arts community in Ottawa in the mid-1980s when he was the administrator and public relations director of the Great Canadian Theatre Company. After a long career in journalism with the Ottawa Citizen where he served in a number of different posts he returned to the arts when he became the Citizen's arts editor.