Richard Van Camp, Cole Nowicki and Alice Irene Whittaker shortlisted for 2025 Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Awards across 12 categories celebrate Alberta’s best books of the year
Richard Van Camp, Cole Nowicki and Alice Irene Whittaker are among the shortlisted authors for the 2025 Alberta Book Publishing Awards.
The prizes, administered by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, annually celebrate the province's best books of the year across 12 categories.
Van Camp is nominated in the graphic novel of the year category for Wheetago War Roth, illustrated by Christopher Shy.
Wheetago War Roth follows a local hero named Ross, who is bitten by a Wheetago at his cabin in northern Edmonton. The province of Alberta is crawling with the deadly monsters and Ross must form an alliance with escaped prisoners in order to reach his family, who are trapped in the city.
Half-transformed, Ross holds onto his humanity with the help of his family medicine. But the Wheetago are not discouraged — they've already renamed him "Roth" and wait for him to join their "gruesome crusade."
Van Camp is a Tłı̨chǫ Dene writer from Fort Smith, N.W.T., who has written over 25 books across multiple genres. His graphic novel A Blanket of Butterflies was nominated for an Eisner Award and his children's book Little You, illustrated by Julie Flett, was translated into Bush Cree, Plains Cree, South Slavey and Chipewyan.
Shy is an American artist, book cover designer and film poster artist. His graphic novel work includes Dead Space, I Sleep in Stone and The Mummy.
Nowicki's essay collection Laser Quit Smoking Massage is shortlisted for trade nonfiction book of the year.
Laser Quit Smoking Massage explores questions of family, community and belonging amid the rural and urban spaces that make up Western Canada.
Nowicki is a writer, producer and publisher originally from Lac La Biche, Alta., who now lives and works in Vancouver. His work has been featured in publications such The Walrus, Catapult, Vice, The Outline, Maisonneuve and Quartersnacks.
Whittaker is also nominated for trade nonfiction book of the year for Homing.
Homing is a memoir about the author's experience of abandoning a busy commuter lifestyle to move to a cabin in the woods with her family. The book also touches upon the journey of repairing her fractured relationship with both herself and the natural world.
Whittaker is a writer and environmental leader who lives with her family in a cabin in the woods in Quebec. She is the executive director of Ecology Ottawa and the creator and host of Reseed, a podcast about repairing our relationship to nature.
Whittaker has been longlisted for all three CBC Literary Prizes. She was on the 2022 CBC Poetry Prize longlist, the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist and she was also on the CBC Short Story Prize longlist in 2012.
See the complete list of nominees below:
Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year:
- Against the Odds by Drew Ann Wake
- Homing by Alice Irene Whittaker
- Laser Quit Smoking Massage by Cole Nowicki
- Stories Left in Stone by Troy Nahumko
Learning Book of the Year:
- The Boundaried Therapist by Nicole Perry
- Common Clinical Presentations by Dr. Christopher Naugler
- Îethka: Stories & Language in Stoney Nakoda Country by Trent Fox and Valentina Fox
- For the Public Good by Loleen Berdahl, Jonathan Malloy and Lisa Young
Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry:
- Moving to Delilah by Catherine Owen
- Attic Rain by Samantha Jones
- Deviant by Patrick Grace
- That Audible Slippage by Margaret Christakos
Douglas Barbour Award for Speculative Fiction:
- The Tongue Trade by Michael J. Martineck
- Shout Kill Revel by Jarret Hartnell
- Wheetago War Roth by Richard Van Camp, illustrated by Christopher Shy
- Carpe Noctem edited by Megan Fennell and Leslie Van Zwol
Scholarly & Academic Book of the Year:
- Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century edited by Lachlan MacKinnon and Andrew Parnaby
- Feministing in Political Science edited by Alana Cattapan, Ethel Tungohan, Nisha Nath, Fiona MacDonald and Stephanie Paterson
- Indigenous Legalities, Pipeline Viscosities by Tyler McCreary
- A History of Public Health in Alberta, 1919-2019 edited by Lindsay McLaren, Donald W.M. Juzwishin and Rogelio Velez Mendoza
Graphic Novel of the Year:
- Quid Pro Crow by Bill Slavin
- Shout Kill Revel by Jarret Hartnell
- Wheetago War Roth by Richard Van Camp, illustrated by Christopher Shy
Trade Fiction Book of the Year:
- Art of Camouflage by Sara Power
- Hiroshima Bomb Money by Terry Watada
- Rubble Children by Aaron Kreuter
- We are Already Ghosts by Kit Dobson
Regional Book of the Year:
- Writing Ukraine by Myrna Kostash
- The Art of Making by Jared Tailfeathers
- Half-Light by Amy Kaler
- Strong and Free by Ted Morton
Book Cover Design:
- Cape Breton in the Long Twentieth Century edited by Lachlan MacKinnon and Andrew Parnaby, book cover design by Martyn Schmoll
- Resisting the Dehumanization of Refugees edited by Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Michael Frishkopf, Reza Hasmath and Anna Kirova, book cover design by John van der Woude
- Juiceboxers by Benjamin Hertwig, book cover design by Natalie Olsen
- Shout Kill Revel by Jarret Hartnell
Book Design:
- Game Genie Poems by Kevin Stebner, book design by Kyle Flemmer
- Every Night I Dream I'm a Monk, Every Night I Dream I'm a Monster by Damian Tarnopolsky, book design by Natalie Olsen
- Shout Kill Revel by Jarret Hartnell
Book Illustration:
- Buffalo Traces by Mark Vitaris
- Shout Kill Revel by Jarret Hartnell
Mystery & Thriller Book of the Year:
- Bronco Buster by A.J. Devlin
- Call of the Void by J.T. Siemens
- Quid Pro Crow by Bill Slavin
Many of the shortlisted books are available in accessible formats on the Centre for Equitable Library Access website.
The winners, along with that of the Lifetime Achievement in Alberta Publishing Award, will be announced at a ceremony at the Grey Eagle Resort in Calgary on Sept. 18, 2025.
Previous winners include Canadian writers such as Dionne Brand, Dawn Dumont, Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Wayne Arthurson.
