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:
Award for a First Book
Bertrand Bickersteth 
Published: Apr 01, 2020 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781988732794
Award for Art & Photography Book
Mark Vitaris 
Published: Oct 01, 2020 by Frontenac House Ltd.
ISBN: 9781989466070
Award for Nonfiction
Anne Wheeler 
Published: Oct 15, 2020 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781774390016
Award for Short Stories
Leona Theis 
Published: Sep 01, 2020 by Freehand Books
ISBN: 9781988298719
Award for Poetry
Kat Cameron
Published: Feb 18, 2020 by University of Alberta Press
ISBN: 9781772125092
Bertrand Bickersteth 
Published: Apr 01, 2020 by NeWest Press
ISBN: 9781988732794
“No Definition of Alberta Culture is complete without recognizing the herculean efforts of Alberta publishers to bring the prodigious talents of Canadian writers to eager readers everywhere.”
~ Steve Budnarchuk, Audreys Books