Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers' Choice Award

Calling all Alberta authors!

The Edmonton Public Library is pleased to present the third annual Alberta Readers’ Choice Award for 2012 – one of Alberta’s richest literary awards. Last year’s award generated an outstanding and diverse selection of books published in Alberta. In the end, voters made their choice and Helen Waldstein Wilkes walked away with the coveted $10,000 prize for Letters from the Lost - A Memoir of Discovery.

For the 2012 Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers’ Choice Award, we have modified the award eligibility criteria. This year, works of fiction and narrative non-fiction (i.e., first edition full-length novels, short story collections or books of poetry) will be accepted by any author who has been a resident of Alberta for a minimum of 12 consecutive months immediately prior to the publication of the submitted work, and who currently resides in Alberta, no matter where the book was published. The change makes this truly an Alberta award and recognizes the exceptional writing talent in our province while encouraging readers to support Alberta authors.

Submissions for the third annual award are now closed. Thanks to all the authors who offered their titles.

2012 EPL Alberta Readers' Choice Award Long List

After reading some terrific submissions by ultra-talented Alberta authors, the EPL Alberta Readers' Choice Award committee has created a long list of ten superb titles that is sure to capture the attention of Alberta readers and induce some tough decision-making for our jury members.

Fall From Grace
Wayne Arthurson
Forge Books		In the Suicide's Library
Tim Bowling
Gaspereau Press		Leaving Dublin
Brian Brennan
RMB		The Antagonist
Lynn Coady
House of Anansi Press		Nobody Cries at Bingo
Dawn Dumont
Thistledown Press
 
The Little Shadows
Marina Endicott
Doubleday Canada		Canadian Pie
Will Ferguson
Viking Canada		Freddy's War
Judy Schultz
Brindle & Glass		Chance to Dance For You
Gail Sidonie Sobat
Great Plains Publications		Memoir of a Good Death
Anne Sorbie
Thistledown Press

The top-five finalists will be announced in April 2012. Public voting begins May 2012.

Sponsored by the Edmonton Public Library, the Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers’ Choice Award is awarded annually for the best fiction or narrative non-fiction book written by an Alberta author. The prize is valued at $10,000 with the prize going to the winning author. 

Eligibility Criteria

  1. Only works of fiction and narrative non-fiction are eligible. Books must be a first edition full-length novel, short story collection or book of poetry written by an Alberta author who has been a resident of Alberta for a minimum of 12 consecutive months immediately prior to the publication of the submitted work, and who currently resides in Alberta.
  2. Books must be published between October 1, 2010 and December 31, 2011 for the 2012 Award. In subsequent years books must be published between January 1 and December 31.
  3. The primary language of the work must be English. Previous publication of the book in another language does not disqualify it. In the case of a translation, the original work must be Alberta- authored and it must have been published no more than three years prior to its English translation.
  4. All books must carry an ISBN number, be distributed for sale in Alberta, and be available in Alberta bookstores or Alberta libraries.
  5. Unpublished manuscripts are not eligible.
  6. Reprints or new format reprints of any kind are not eligible.
  7. Selections and collections of poetry and short stories that have been previously published in magazines are eligible.
  8. Multi-author anthologies are not eligible.
  9. With the exception of poetry collections, works must be 48 pages or longer.

Submission Procedures

  1. Request for submissions will be posted to the following websites; the Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers’ Choice page on the Edmonton Public Library website, the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, the Writers Guild of Alberta, and the Canadian Authors Association.
  2. Entries may be submitted by authors, publishers or other interested parties.
  3. Each submission must be accompanied by two printed copies of the book, which will not be returned to the author or publisher.
  4. Each entry must be accompanied by the submission form, a current author biography, and an electronic image of the author sent by email that can be reproduced for publicity purposes.
  5. Entries must be mailed to:

Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers’ Choice Award
Stanley A. Milner Library
7 Sir Winston Churchill Square
Edmonton, AB
T5J 2V4
Email: albertareaderschoice@epl.ca

Entries must be postmarked no later than December 31, 2011. Books received or postmarked after the deadline will not be eligible.

Selection Procedures and Jury

  1. Edmonton Public Library staff will review all submissions and create a longlist of 10 titles and submit the longlist to the jury.
  2. The jury will consist of 2 staff members from the Edmonton Public Library, the current Writer in Residence at the Edmonton Public Library, and two members of the literary community.
  3. The jury will shortlist the best books on the basis of literary quality, with no consideration given to publisher, geography, gender, or ethnicity.
  4. The jury will shortlist no more than 5 titles to be voted on by Alberta readers. The jury will select the shortlist in private deliberations.
  5. The jury will only discuss submissions with their fellow jurors.
  6. The decision of the jury is binding.
  7. The decision of the jury as to whether a book is eligible shall be binding.

Finalists

  1. The shortlist of finalists will be announced with a press release in April 2012.
  2. Publicity promoting the Edmonton Public Library Readers Choice Award will begin at the time of the shortlist announcement and continue until after the winner is declared.
  3. The winner of the Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers’ Choice Award will be announced at the annual Alberta Book Awards Gala. So that all shortlisted authors may attend the ceremony, the prize will bear the cost of travel and overnight accommodation for authors who live outside of the host city.

Voting

  1. Public voting will take place online.
  2. Public voting will take place in a 4-week voting period ending one week before the Alberta Book Awards Gala.
  3. Each voter will only be able to vote once.
  4. Each voter will be required to register before they vote using their email address and the first 3 characters of their postal code.
  5. Votes will be tabulated electronically, and the author with the most votes will be declared the winner.

Conditions of the Prize

The author of the winning book will participate in all reasonable publicity associated with the Edmonton Public Library Alberta Readers’ Choice Award. 

Download guidelines

Download submission form

  

Past Award Winners

2011 Alberta Readers' Choice Award

Letters from the Lost
By Helen Waldstein Wilkes
Published by AU Press
 

Listen to Helen Waldstein Wilkes' interview with CBC Daybreak Alberta

About Letters from the Lost
On March 15, 1939, Helen Waldstein’s father snatched his stamped exit visa from a distracted clerk to escape from Prague with his wife and child. As the Nazis closed in on a war-torn Czechoslovakia, only letters from their extended family could reach Canada through the barriers of conflict. The Waldstein family received these letters as they made their lives on a southern Ontario farm, where they learned to be Canadian and forget their Jewish roots.

Helen Waldstein read these letters as an adult―this changed everything. As her past refused to keep silent, Helen followed the trail of the letters back to Europe, where she discovered living witnesses who could attest to the letters’ contents. She has here interwoven their stories and her own into a compelling narrative of suffering, survivor guilt, and overcoming intergenerational obstacles when exploring a traumatic past.

About Helen Waldstein Wilkes
Since receiving her Ph.D in French Literature, Helen Waldstein Wilkes spent 30 years teaching at every level in Canada and in the U.S. Her research interests include cross-cultural understanding, language acquisition, and neurolinguistics. Now retired and living in Vancouver, she is actively examining her own cultural inheritance and its impact.

2010 Alberta Readers' Choice Award

Fishing for Bacon
By Michael Davie
Published by NeWest Press

About Fishing for Bacon
My name’s Bacon Sobelowski, and I’m trying to find my someone. Kenny Rogers sings a song that says there’s someone for everyone, and in Bellevue where I live, Kenny Rogers’ word is gold. It’s just too bad my mother thinks girls turn boys into pigs, but that’s probably just because my father had enough of her Eggos and walked out.

But maybe she’s right. I’m not sure if Sarah is my someone because she got mad and smashed chili peppers into a cut on my head, and maybe my someone wouldn’t do that. Karla could be it because she lets me stay at her condo, but she might be too old to be my someone. Then there’s Mr. Kwon’s daughter, but she’s sort of my cousin and I’m not sure if sort-of cousins can be someones at the same time.

I think it might all come down to timing, and if that’s true then I’m in trouble. I’m Bacon Sobelowski—who knows if I’ll ever find my someone.

"Fishing for Bacon is raw, pungent, funny, and strangely poignant. Michael Davie is one of the most engaging authors to emerge in some time. And now, if you'll excuse me, I have a sudden craving for beef dip.” —Will Ferguson, author of Spanish Fly

"I wish success on any book that has the word 'bacon' in the title." —Dennis Cass, author of Head Case: How I Almost Lost My Mind Trying to Understand My Brain

About Michael Davie
While Michael Davie has lived in South Korea, it was his years spent in the Rocky Mountain towns of Waterton, Banff, Canmore, and Jasper, living immersed in an often eccentric resort subculture, that most influenced his creative output, first in publishing a cartoon series, The Last Resort, then in literature with his first novel, Fishing for Bacon.
Davie, who is originally from Lethbridge, graduated from the University of Lethbridge with a Bachelor of Management and studied Creative Writing at the University of Calgary and the Victoria School of Writing. He and his family now live in Victoria, BC. 

  

News Releases

June 11, 2011
Winner of Alberta Readers' Choice Award Takes $10,000 Prize

April 20, 2011
 Alberta Readers' Choice Award Announces Top Five Books Vying for $10,000 Prize

January 18, 2011
 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award Reveals 2011 Book Champions Panel

March 1, 2010
 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award Names Top 5 Books

January 26, 2010
 Alberta Readers' Choice Award Announces Juror Panel

December 4, 2009
 Alberta Readers' Choice Award Announces Semi-Finalists

October 23, 2009
 Alberta Readers' Choice Award Call for Votes Begins

May 12, 2009
EPL and the BPAA Sponsor $10,000 Publishing Award

In the News




For all media enquiries, please contact:

Monica Walker
Senior Marketing Communications Consultant
p. 780.496.7055
e. mwalker@epl.ca

      

For general questions, please contact:

Anna-Marie Klassen
Fiction and Literature Librarian
p: 780.496.7032
e: aklassen@epl.ca

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Monica Walker
Senior Marketing Communications Consultant
p: 780.496.7055
e: mwalker@epl.ca

  


 

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