Head Tale

An incredibly timely Book of the Year winner.

Tonight was the 2021 Saskatchewan Book Awards and I also recently found the 2021 Alberta Book Awards on social media.

I spent nearly a decade in the literary non-profit sector and both served on the board of the SBA for a few years (as well as a frequent volunteer doing everything from taking tickets to running the AV presentation to arranging to have the annual posters framed) and also helping to organize multiple ABA Galas as an employee of the Writers Guild of Alberta during my years in Calgary (did I ever tell you about the time the very fancy Palliser Hotel hosted the Alberta Book Awards and later became a sports bar for one night only?)

Lots of memories from my first decade working come back as I watch these two videos, lots of familiar names and faces, lots of books to add to my ever-expanding “To Read” list!

[Edit: I also found a video for the 2020 Alberta Book Publishing Awards which are a bit different than the Alberta Literary Awards linked above.  I won’t say too much but during my time at the WGA, Alberta’s literary awards were jointly presented by the province’s writers organization and its publishing organization but I am not surprised to see they went their separate ways given there was always a lot more tension between what each organization wanted compared to Sask where the awards are a standalone organization but may have board representation by some or all of the founding members – writers, publishers, and librarian organizations – at any one time.]