In Winnipeg’s literary equivalent to Hollywood’s Academy Awards, University of Winnipeg and Collegiate alumni and faculty, received nominations in nine of 13 categories and dominated the major awards.
Ten alumni and two professors made the shortlists for the 2004 Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards. Three were nominated more than once for their works.
University of Winnipeg alumni Brian Drader ’84 (Prok), Armin Wiebe ’69 (Tatsea), and Frances Russell ’62 (The Canadian Crucible: Manitoba’s Role in Canada’s Great Divide) are three of five finalists for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award. The fourth finalist is University of Winnipeg English Professor Mark Morton (The Lover’s Tongue: A Merry Romp Through the Language of Love and Sex). Wiebe ’69 is in the running for the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction as well; and Morton is also up for the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction. Russell ’62 is nominated as well in both the Scholarly Books and Popular Books categories of the Manitoba Historical Society’s Margaret McWilliams Awards.
Three out of four finalists in the McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award (Older Category) are University of Winnipeg alumni Linda Holeman ’72 (Toxic Love); Carol Matas ’67 Collegiate (Gotcha!); and Duncan Thornton ’87 (The Star-Glass).
Alumnus Guy Maddin ’78 (From the Atelier Tovar: Selected Writings) is shortlisted for the celebrated Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award; and alumna Tanis MacDonald ’83,’98 (Fortune) is in the running for Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher.
One of the most exciting categories—the John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer—features alumni David Annandale ’85 Collegiate and Chandra Mayor ’90 Collegiate, Current UWinnipeg Student in contention.
Neil Besner, Dean of Arts, is shortlisted for the prestigious Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction for editing Carol Shields: The Arts of a Writing Life .
Co-produced by the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, the awards will be presented at Brave New Words: The Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards Gala April 23, 2004 at the Hotel Fort Garry.
