Head Tale

The Riders aren't the only ones in Saskatchewan hoping to win a big prize this weekend – it's also time for the annual Saskatchewan Book Awards. 

Except for last year when I was in Ontario for school, I've attended every Gala since 1997.  I served on their board for three years…

…designed and maintained their web site for almost a decade before finally handing over the reigns last year to someone who's already made improvements (book covers to go with the list of nominated titles – why wasn't I less lazy more creative in doing something like that?)

Okay, I admit the site was never great in terms of its look but I did get a few compliments because of the way I organized and built the information year after year. 

I still pull out one of the compliments every once in awhile, especially now that I'm in the library world.  (I like to think that it shows I was thinking like a librarian, even when I wasn't one!)

“You have the best – most informative – Web site for your book awards of any that I have seen. And, I have seen quite a few as we are compiling a listing of winners of Canadian literary awards (1923-2000) which will be published by the Canadian Library Association. – Suzanne Sexty, Information Services, Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland” 

On top of all that, the Book Awards are also responsible for the single scariest winter drive of my entire life coming back from a shortlist brunch reading in Saskatoon about seven years ago or so. A blizzard blew in that day and coming home was like driving on a curling rink (if it a curling rink that had a raging blizzard happening in it)  I saw cars pulled over the whole trip, semis (“transports” for the Ontario readers) in the ditch and still, my little 1985 Tempo (and the even littler brain in my head that even decided to even try to make it) guided me home safely. 

I used to get the embargoed list of award winners in advance most years so they were ready to go up on the web site that night or the next day.  But since I'm no longer doing the web site, I think I'll play the game people often play at the table during the Gala by trying to pick the winners – most of the people not having read many if any of the nominated books (as is the case for me this year) but going on hunches based on what we know of the book, its subject, the authors and their past luck at the Gala (do they always win?  Have they never won but are due?), even just what the book cover looks like. 

My picks in red, I'll come back later and put the winners in blue – which is bad usability because everyone will think they're links and they won't be!  Okay, I'll use gold.  Oh, and I guess I'll change the ones I picked right to orange.)
Anyhew…

BOOK OF THE YEAR — 2007

Sheri Benning, Thin Moon Psalm (Brick Books)

Rebecca L. Grambo, photographs by Branimir Gjetvaj, The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis (Nature Saskatchewan)

Harold Johnson, Two Families:  Treaties and Government (Purich Publishing)

Dave Margoshes, Bix's Trumpet and other stories (NeWest Press)

Michael Trussler, Accidental Animals, (Hagios Press)

Seán Virgo, Begging Questions (Exile Editions)

 

FICTION — 2007

Bernice Friesen, The Book of Beasts (Coteau Books)

Sean Johnston, All This Town Remembers (Gaspereau Press)

Dave Margoshes, Bix's Trumpet and other stories (NeWest Press)

R.P. MacIntyre, Feeding at Nine (Thistledown Press)

Seán Virgo, Begging Questions (Exile Editions)

 

NON-FICTION — 2007

Lawrence Barkwell, Leah Dorion, Audreen Hourie, editors, Metis Legacy II:  Michif Culture, Heritage and Folkways, (Gabriel Dumont Institute)

Rebecca L. Grambo, The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis  (Nature Saskatchewan)

Mary-Ann Kirkby, I Am Hutterite (Polka Dot Press)

Pat Krause, Acts of Love: A Memoir (Coteau Books)

Bill Waiser, Everett Baker's Saskatchewan (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

Garrett Wilson, Frontier Farewell:  The 1870s and the End of the Old West (Canadian Plains Research Center)

 

FIRST BOOK — 2007

Shirley Harris, Forgotten Gardens, Abandoned Landscapes & Remarkable Restorations
(Your Nickel's Worth Publishing)

Mary-Ann Kirkby, I Am Hutterite (Polka Dot Press)

Alice Kuipers, Life on the Refrigerator Door (Harper Collins Canada)

Barb Pacholik and Jana G. Pruden, Sour Milk and Other Saskatchewan Crime Stories (Canadian Plains Research Center)

Anne Patton and Wilfred Burton, Michif translation by Norman Fleury, illustrated by Sherry Farrell
Racette, Fiddle Dancer (Gabriel Dumont Institute)

Joanne Weber, The Pear Orchard (Hagios Press)

 

CHILDREN’S — 2007

Beverley Brenna, The Moon Children (Red Deer Press) 

Glenda Goertzen, City Dogs (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)

R.P. MacIntyre, Feeding at Nine (Thistledown Press)

Anne Patton and Wilfred Burton, Michif translation by Norman Fleury, illustrated by Sherry Farrell
Racette, Fiddle Dancer (Gabriel Dumont Institute)

Arthur Slade, Invasion of the IQ Snatchers (Coteau Books for Kids)

Bill Waiser, Tommy Douglas (Fitzhenry & Whiteside)     

 

POETRY — 2007

Sheri Benning, Thin Moon Psalm (Brick Books)

Elizabeth Philips, Torch River (Brick Books)

Steven Ross Smith, fluttertongue 4:  adagio for the pressured surround  (NeWest Press)

 

REGINA — 2007

William Driedger, Jakob, Out of the Village (Your Nickel's Worth Publishing)

Pat Krause, Acts of Love: A Memoir (Coteau Books)     

Dave Margoshes, Bix's Trumpet and other stories (NeWest Press)

Anne Patton and Wilfred Burton, Michif translation by Norman Fleury, illustrated by Sherry Farrell
Racette, Fiddle Dancer (Gabriel Dumont Institute)

Michael Trussler, Accidental Animals, (Hagios Press)
Paul Wilson, Turning Mountain  (Wolsak & Wynn Publishers)

 

SASKATOON — 2007

Sheri Benning, Thin Moon Psalm (Brick Books)

Doug Cuthand, Askiwina:  A Cree World (Coteau Books)

Terry Fenton, Reta Summers Cowley (Mendel Art Gallery and University of Calgary Press)

Bernice Friesen, The Book of Beasts (Coteau Books)

Elizabeth Philips, Torch River (Brick Books)      

 

SCHOLARLY WRITING — 2007

Rebecca L. Grambo, The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis  (Nature Saskatchewan)

Dick Spencer, Singing the Blues: The Conservatives in Saskatchewan (Canadian Plains Research
Center) 

Blair Stonechild, The New Buffalo: The Struggle for Aboriginal Post-Secondary Education in Canada (University of Manitoba Press)

Bernard D. Thraves, Marilyn L. Lewry, Janis E. Dale, Hansgeorg Schlichtmann, editors, Saskatchewan:  Geographic Perspectives (Canadian Plains Research Center)

Garrett Wilson, Frontier Farewell:  The 1870s and the End of the Old West (Canadian Plains Research
Center) 

 

READERS’ CHOICE — 2007

Anthony Bidulka, Stain of the Berry (Insomniac Press)

Amanda Deitz, Longer than Life, Volume 2 (Amanda Deitz)

Deana Driver, Never Give Up:  Ted Jaleta's Inspiring Story (JDC Productions)

Michael P.J. Kennedy, Dogs on Ice: A History of Hockey at University of Saskatchewan,
(Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and “Friends of the Huskies”)

Les Langager, Wild Justice (Your Nickel's Worth Publishing)

Brian Trainor, Stop Fraud (Red Deer Press)      

(This is a reader-voted award which used to be voted on during the Gala out of the entire shortlist.  It went “wide” this year via a ballot system organized by Regina Public Library and distributed to all public libraries in the province.  I have no idea who will win this and won't hazard a guess.)

 

PUBLISHING — 2007

Canadian Plains Research Center, Frontier Farewell:  The 1870s and the End of the Old West,
Garrett Wilson

Canadian Plains Research Center, Saskatchewan:  Geographic Perspectives, Bernard D. Thraves,
Marilyn L. Lewry, Janis E. Dale, Hansgeorg Schlichtmann, editors

Coteau Books, The Book of Beasts, Bernice Friesen

Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, Vaughan Grayson:  Adventures of an Artist in the Canadian Rockies, Heather Smith (curator)

Nature Saskatchewan, The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis, Rebecca L. Grambo, photographs by Branimir Gjetvaj

Purich Publishing Ltd., Cree Narrative Memory: From Treaties to Contemporary Times, Neal McLeod

 

FIRST PEOPLES PUBLISHING — 2007

Native Law Centre, First Nations Jurisprudence and Aboriginal Rights: Defining the Just Society, James Youngblood Henderson

Purich Publishing Ltd, Two Families:  Treaties and Government, Harold Johnson

KAKWA Publishing, Niiwin – Four Ojibwa Critter Tales, Kathleen Coleclough  

 

PUBLISHING IN EDUCATION — 2007

Bernard D. Thraves, Marilyn L. Lewry, Janis E. Dale, Hansgeorg Schlichtmann, editors, Saskatchewan: Geographic Perspectives (Canadian Plains Research Center)

Coteau Books, Askiwina:  A Cree World, Doug Cuthand

The Gabriel Dumont Institute, Metis Legacy II:  Michif Culture, Heritage and Folkways, Leah Dorion,
Lawrence  Barkwell,  Audreen Hourie, editors

JDC Productions, Never Give Up:  Ted Jaleta's Inspiring Story, Deana Driver

Native Law Centre, First Nations Jurisprudence and Aboriginal Rights:  Defining the Just Society,
James Youngblood Henderson 

Nature Saskatchewan, The Great Sand Hills: A Prairie Oasis, Rebecca L. Grambo, photographs by Branimir Gjetvaj