Ottawa’s strong literary community was on view Wednesday night as the annual book awards were handed out in City Hall’s Jean Pigott Place to John Metcalf, Charlotte Gray and Andrée Christensen.
Each took home a prize of $7,500. The other finalists get $1,000 each. The annual Archibald Lampman Award was given by Arc Poetry Magazine to Stephen Brockwell for his poetry collection All of Us Reticent, Here, Together (Mansfield Press).
This year awards were given in three categories. Metcalf won the English fiction category for his collection of linked short stories The Museum at the End of the World (Biblioasis). Gray won the English non-fiction award for The Promise of Canada: 150 Years – People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country (Simon & Schuster Canada).
The award for French fiction was presented to Andrée Christensen for her book of poetry Épines d’encre (Les Éditions David). There was no award for French non-fiction because there were too few entries.
The winners were chosen from 15 finalists. Here are the other nominees:
English fiction
Peggy Blair for Umbrella Man (Simon & Schuster Canada)
Nadia Bozak for Thirteen Shells (House of Anansi Press)
Faizal Deen for The Greatest Films (Mawenzi House Publishers)
Katherine Leyton for All the Gold Hurts My Mouth (Goose Lane Editions)
English non-fiction
Kevin Burns, for Henri Nouwen: His Life and Spirit (Franciscan Media)
Deborah Gorham for Marion Dewar: A Life of Action (Second Story Press)
Nathan M. Greenfield for The Reckoning: Canadian Prisoners of War in the Great War (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd)
D. Peter MacLeod for Backs to the Wall: The Battle of Sainte-Foy and the Conquest of Canada (Douglas & McIntyre)
French fiction
Jean Boisjoli for La mesure du temps (Éditions Prise de parole)
Marie Gingras for La poulette grise (Éditions Vents d’Ouest)
Christian Milat for Si je connaissais… (Les Éditions David)
Sébastien Pierroz for Entre parenthèses (Éditions Prise de parole)
For more on all these titles please see ottawa.ca.
Past award winners include Nadine McInnis, Tim Cook, Scott Randall, Heather Menzies, David O’Meara, Jamieson Findlay, Brian Doyle, Frances Itani, Patricia Smart and Daniel Poliquin.
