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2021 High Plains Awards Finalists

The High Plains Book Award finalists have been announced, and Alberta publishers well represented. The High Plains Book Awards’ website states that they “originated as an idea from the Chair of the Billings Public Library’s Board of Trustees in 2006. Lloyd Mickelson loved the literature of the High Plains that evoked its special connection to that singular landscape. He encouraged the rest of the Board to consider having the Library sponsor an award to recognize and reward the excellent writing of our region. The first Awards were presented in 2007. Though the library is still a sustaining sponsor, the High Plains Book Awards is now a separate nonprofit organization.”

There are up to three finalists in each category, and the winners will be announced at an Awards Banquet held in conjunction with the High Plains BookFest in September 2021 in Billings, Montana (depending on current public health restrictions). Each Book Award winner will receive a $500 award and commemorative plaque.

The Alberta-published finalists are:

* Click on the publisher name for a description of the book

Award for a First Book

Response of Weeds, The: A Misplacement of Black Poetry on the Prairies

Bertrand Bickersteth (CA)

Published: Apr 01, 2020 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781988732794

Award for Art & Photography Book

Borderlands

Mark Vitaris (CA)

Published: Oct 01, 2020 by Frontenac House Ltd.
ISBN: 9781989466070

Award for Nonfiction

Taken by the Muse: On the Path to Becoming a Filmmaker

Anne Wheeler (CA)

Published: Oct 15, 2020 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781774390016

Award for Short Stories

If Sylvie Had Nine Lives

Leona Theis (CA)

Published: Sep 01, 2020 by Freehand Books
ISBN: 9781988298719

Award for Poetry

Ghosts Still Linger

Kat Cameron

Published: Feb 18, 2020 by University of Alberta Press
ISBN: 9781772125092

 

Response of Weeds, The: A Misplacement of Black Poetry on the Prairies

Bertrand Bickersteth (CA)

Published: Apr 01, 2020 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781988732794