Norma Dunning, Premee Mohamed and Jordan Abel among writers shortlisted for 2022 Alberta Literary Awards
Norma Dunning, Premee Mohamed and Jordan Abel are among the Canadian writers shortlisted for the 2022 Alberta Literary Awards and the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize.
Administered annually by the Writers' Guild of Alberta, the Alberta Literary Awards, the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize and the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize all recognize the best in literary works by Alberta authors.
Two awards were added this year, one for a short story collection and the other for nonfiction memoir. The Alberta Literary Awards highlight works in eight categories: children's literature, short nonfiction, short story, poetry, essay, drama, nonfiction and fiction.
Norma Dunning is nominated for the Short Story Collection Award for her six-story collection Tainna: The Unseen Ones.
Tainna, meaning "the unseen ones," is a collection of six stories that explore the lives of modern-day Inuk characters who, though they may lead very different lives, all must confront feelings of isolation, loneliness, and displacement resulting from their experiences in southern Canada.
Dunning is an Edmonton-based Inuk writer. She is also the author of the short story collection Annie Muktuk and Other Stories and the poetry collection Eskimo Pie: A Poetics of Inuit Identity. Annie Muktuk and Other Stories won the 2018 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, which recognizes the best debut short story collection of the year.
Premee Mohamed's post-apocalyptic novella, The Annual Migration of Clouds, is nominated for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize and Georges Burnet Award for Fiction.
Set in a climate-stricken world, The Annual Migration of Clouds is a moving story that reflects on the meaning of community amid scarcity and asks what we owe those who lift us up.
Mohamed is an Indo-Caribbean scientist and speculative fiction author based in Edmonton.
Jordan Abel is nominated for the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction for his autobiographical book Nishga.
Nishga is a personal exploration of Abel's relationship to his Indigeneity and the complicated nature of contemporary Indigenous experience.
Abel is a Nisga'a writer from British Columbia. He is the author of the poetry collections The Place of Scraps, Un/inhabited and Injun. In 2017, he won the Griffin Poetry Prize for Injun.
More than 300 submissions were considered and 36 finalists were chosen.
The Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize is a $10,000 prize that is awarded to the best book of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, children's literature or drama published in the year prior. The finalists are:
- Burning the Night by Glen Huser
- The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
- Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest by Trina Moyles
The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize is a $5,000 prize that recognizes the best book in a given year written by a Calgary author. The finalists are:
- Memory Speaks by Julie Sedivy
- My Mother, My Translator by Jaspreet Singh
- Unbecoming by Neil Surkan
The Georges Bugnet Award is a $1,500 prize that recognizes the best fiction of the year. The finalists are:
- The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed
- The Shade Tree by Theresa Shea
- Bath Haus by P. J. Vernon
The Stephan G. Stephansson Award is a $1,500 prize that recognizes the best poetry collection. The finalists are:
- Think of How Old We Could Get by Tyler Engström
- Tell the Birds your Body is Not a Gun by Rayanne Haines
- Miraculous Sickness by Ky Perraun
The R. Ross Annett Award for Children's Literature is a $1,500 prize that recognizes the best chapter book. The finalists are:
- Wild Waters: Inside a Voyageur's World by Larry Loyie with Constance Brissenden
- Meranda and the Legend of the Lake by Meagan Mahoney
- When You Least Expect It by Lorna Shultz Nicholson
The Wilfrid Eggleston Award is a $1,500 prize that recognizes the best nonfiction book of the year. The finalists are:
- Nishga by Jordan Abel
- Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas by Omar Mouallem
- Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self by Julie Sedivy
The Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award is a $1,500 prize that recognizes the best drama of the year. The work can be published or produced. The finalists are:
- Ai Yah! Chop Suey by Dale Lee Kwong
- Closer and Closer Apart by Eugene Stickland
- Love is Magic by David van Belle
The Howard O'Hagan Award is a $700 prize that recognizes the best short fiction of the year. The finalists are:
- Cenotaph by C.J Lavigne
- Naked States by Ben Lof
- Malady Head by Rod Moody-Corbett
The James H. Gray Award is a $700 prize that recognizes the best short nonfiction. The finalists are:
- The Wounded Man by Lisa Martin
- How a McDonald's Knockoff Became the Immigrant Dream by Omar Mouallem
- Defamiliarizing the Mother Tongue: On Immigration's Impact on Learning and Losing Language by Julie Sedivy
The Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award is a $700 prize that recognizes the best unpublished essay. The finalists are:
- Inglorious Bastards by Katherine Abbass
- Bad Extra by Ali Bryan
- In Defence of Grief by Jessica Waite
The Short Story Collection Award is a $1,500 prize that recognizes the best story short story collection. The finalists are:
- Tainna by Norma Dunning
- Vermin by Lori Hahnel
- Double Wahala, Double Trouble by Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike
The Nonfiction Memoir award is a $1,500 prize that recognizes the best memoir. The finalists are:
- My Own Blood: A Memoir by Ashley Bristowe
- Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas by Omar Mouallem
- Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest by Trina Moyles
The winners will be announced in June 11, 2022.
