http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles en apma.admin@atlanticpublishers.ca Copyright 2011 2011-11-28T20:51:54+00:00 http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/keeping-pace/ http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/keeping-pace/#When:18:44:30Z As Nova Scotia publishers continue to grow and leave a huge economic and cultural footprint they deserve all the support they can get to stay on their feet. Click here to read a report prepared by the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association on the Economic Impact of the Nova Scotia Book Publishing Industry. Book publishing in Atlantic Canada is a growing industry but publishers say they’ll need strong provincial support to compete nationally in the digital age. Nova Scotia’s publishing industry is the largest in the region and the province is seeing increased sales with new publishers springing up, but the available provincial funds aren’t expanding. “We’re growing but the pot isn’t getting any bigger,” says Terrilee Bulger, treasurer for the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association and sales manager at Nimbus, the province’s biggest publishing house.   Publishers are hoping the new NDP government will increase the pot. “The NDP’s campaign platform stated they’d bring funding for publishers up to the level of other provinces,” says Mike Hunter, publisher at Cape Breton University Press. “If the campaign promise is met, Nova Scotia publishers will be better situated to compete…”   Not that there’s anything ‘level’ about the way provinces fund publishing. Some provinces, such as Ontario and Quebec, prioritize publishing, even matching federal dollars. They help industries forge strategic partnerships and provide funds for publishers to digitize catalogues.      It’s common for Nova Scotia publishers to lose authors because they cannot offer sizable advances or tax breaks. The Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association puts sales lost to the province because of local authors contracting with national publishers at $8,324,600 in 2008.   “It’s easy to be a writer in a cottage on the south shore and send your books to Random House in New York; that’s the model here,” says Nimbus general manager, Dan Soucoup.   Ideally, Nova Scotia publishers would like the book sector to benefit from the kind of incentives and tax breaks that have made Nova Scotia’s film industry the country’s fourth largest. Last year, the film industry hit new highs, reporting $150 million in production activity, according to Film Nova Scotia.   Figures from the publishers’ association show that in 2007-2008, Nova Scotia publishing houses recorded $5,411,940 in sales. Of these, 63 per cent occurred in markets outside the province—proving that Nova Scotia books have wide appeal.     “We’re a strong industry,” says Bulger, “We export a lot of books—something the government has said it wants. With a boost from government, we could be so much more.”   Soucoup says, “In Ontario, they’re trying to replace the car industry with the cultural industry. They’re throwing so much money at culture and they’re throwing even more at the digital challenges and opportunities.”       “We’re growing but the pot isn’t getting any bigger,” says Terrilee Bulger, treasurer for the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association and sales manager at Nimbus, the province’s biggest publishing house.   This situation isn’t new; Ontario and Quebec have always dominated. Statscan shows that in 2007, the two provinces accounted for 93 per cent of industry operating revenues and 97 per cent of operating profits.   But several trends, especially the need to digitize collections, create a modern twist. Most publishers see digitization as vital if they’re to grow with the market. E-book sales rose almost 200 per cent in 2009, according to Forrester Research (quoted by Canadian-based e-retailer, Kobo).     It takes time and money to digitize books so they can be read on-line and on devices like Amazon’s Kindle or the new Apple iPad. Print copies have to be delivered to specialized companies where each page of a book is scanned. Software then converts images to text, which is usually checked by proofreaders back at the publishing house.   Publisher James Lorimer said the Ontario company that bears his name is digitizing books with the support of the Ontario government—support that’s not available to Formac, his Halifax-based operation.   The economic value of publishing isalready being recognized by some regional governments, insiders say. Suzanne Alexander, publisher of Fredericton’s Goose Lane Editions, hailed the New Brunswick government’s recent book policy as “enlightened” but stressed publishers can’t depend entirely on favourable policy. “We keep in touch with the marketplace and respond to it,” she said.         Suzanne Alexander, publisher, Goose Lane Editions and Dan Soucoup, Ninbus General Manager The N.B. strategy was launched in September, 2008 and was touted as the first in the region. The three-year plan aims to help publishers become more competitive nationally. Goals include supporting translation and helping public libraries purchase books by local authors or books published in-province.   In Newfoundland and Labrador, a publishers’ assistance program aims to stimulate economic activity and supports digital technology. “The government is starting to understand what publishing is here and what it does,” said Anna Kate MacDonald, publicist at Breakwater Books in St. John’s.   Laurie Brinklow, publisher of Acorn Press, P.E.I.’s sole publisher, said the provincial government has recently acknowledged her years of lobbying and instituted a book publishers’ assistance fund, providing a maximum of $10,000 per year.   Publishers face various issues right now, including changing consumer tastes, which often result in soaring demand for some genres and plummeting desire for others. The range of titles on any given subject has broadened. The reader has choice, while publishers sell fewer copies of any given book.    But it’s the rapidly-changing world of e-publishing that is everyone’s current focus. New trends will be created by iPad, which has a colour screen that can show video. Right now, prices for e-books are low and content is sometimes given away. Publishers say the only people making money are distributors. The market is expected to soar although the Associated Press has reported that incompatibility among e-reading systems may dampen demand.   Whatever happens, no one wants to be left behind. “The e-book issue is a potential tipping point,” said Nate Crawford, the new executive director at the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. “There’s a potential for serious returns if the government is willing to invest.”   Suzanne Alexander said Goose Lane employees watch the landscape. “We feel like we’re scrambling in a very interesting period of time,” Alexander said, adding that e-books may “cannibalize” part of the print market.   “E-books will in some manner redefine what we think of as books,” Alexander said. “With e-books it may be possible to incorporate an audio book as well as a text version.” Books may include a reading by the author or a video link, she added.   Soucoup said that when the dust has settled there’ll be an economic model that makes sense for publishers. “Those that are ready to go and have their books digitized will benefit and grow further,” he said.  2010-09-24T18:44:30+00:00 http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/atlantic-author-day/ http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/atlantic-author-day/#When:18:51:19Z Atlantic Author Day is coming! On Saturday, June 26th many of the authors featured in the 2010 Summer Reading Guide will be signing books at participating bookstores all over Atlantic Canada... Look for your Summer Reading Guide on Saturday June 12th in the Atlantic Edition of the Globe & Mail, The Halifax Herald, The Telegraph-Journal, The Telegram and The Guardian, as well as at most bookstores and libraries across the region. You are also able to download a copy of the guide. Check back here on Monday, June 14 for a schedule of events and where you will be able to find your favourite authors on Atlantic Author Day, Saturday, June 26th!   Atlantic Summer Reading Guide 2010-06-01T18:51:19+00:00 http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/35-years-and-counting/ http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/35-years-and-counting/#When:18:22:24Z Fredericton’s Westminster Books celebrates 35 years If you enjoyed Helene Hanff’s 84 Charing Cross Road, recording the 20 year correspondence between a brash New York journalist and Frank Doel, buyer for an independent London bookstore, and opine such places don’t exist in the real world, opine no more. They do. Located at 445 King Street in downtown Fredericton, Westminster Books is about to celebrate its 35th anniversary as Atlantic Canada’s oldest independent bookstore. Owner/Manager Janet North, who has been with the store since it opened in 1975, is justifiably proud of the 38,000 square foot space, crammed with over 12,000 titles, personally selected from catalogues and book fairs along with children’s book buyer, Noreen McGinn. Since North owns Westminster Books, she doesn’t have to deal with a head office making choices for the store which fail to meet the interests of Fredericton readers. Independence allows her to focus on quality and personal service.   The store is also known for its relaxed and friendly atmosphere, a place for book lovers to talk with staff, all avid readers, and meet other book lovers. “When I was studying sociology at St. Thomas University and working here part-time, I knew this was where I wanted to work after graduation,” says Gloria Nickerson, Marketing Coordinator since 2005. “It has such a nice atmosphere and highlights the character of Fredericton. The people I meet here are fantastic.”   Among them are authors invited to launch their books at Westminster. Wayne Curtis speaks warmly of his launch in 2009 for Night Train to Havana (Lion’s Head Press), for which North sent invitations and served refreshments. “I buy all my books there,” Curtis says, “and if they don’t have what I want, they order it for me, including Latin American writers in translation. They know I like Garcia Marquez and Cormack McCarthy and when a new book by one of them comes in, they call me.” Now Curtis is looking forward to his next launch at Westminster, when Long Ago and Far Away (Pottersfield) is released later this year.   Beth Powning, whose latest novel, The Sea Captain’s Wife (Knopf), was launched there in early 2010, notes, “Janet North goes the extra mile to make events special and has provided a warm, celebratory atmosphere for many of my readings. She not only made a beautiful display with books and shells, but provided a table of delicious food.” When Nova Scotia author Carol Lesbirel entitled her motivational book, Who Says You Can’t, she wasn’t writing about Westminster Books, but she could have been. It has flourished when many independents have been squeezed out of business by the larger competition, as was the shop at 84 Charing Cross Road. But Frank Doel’s determined spirit is alive and well at Westminster, where staff continue to search hard-to-find titles. “I love a good search,” says Nickerson. “I get stubborn and I eventually hunt it down.”     “I’ve always supported Westminster Books,” says Michael Nowlan, consultant, writer, philatelist and book reviewer for the Daily Gleaner, who has requested special orders over the years.  “They add a great deal to the area and to those of us who enjoy and appreciate books.”Grateful for public support over 35 years, North has found unique ways to give back to the community, including a long-established Book Club with benefits for shoppers and Adopt-A-Book program in which readers  purchase a book at discount and donate it  to the New Brunswick Public Library System. The official anniversary date, with cake and balloons, is set for October 16, but 35 years is too important a milestone to limit to one day, Nickerson says, resulting in many more launches events and readings throughout the year. As Powning says, “I wish this vibrant bookstore was in my own town. Lucky Fredericton!” 2010-04-29T18:22:24+00:00 http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/the-rise-of-the-short-story-novel/ http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/the-rise-of-the-short-story-novel/#When:18:08:31Z As the internet destroys the music album in favour of singles, writers are wondering if it could do the same thing to the novel as readers grow accustomed to the short form of Twitter in our blog new world. Two recent East Coast short-story novels offer a series of stand-alone tales centering on one protagonist. Readers can start with the first story and go straight through, read it backwards or hit shuffle and read it in whatever order strikes their fancy. Think of it as the iPod meets the novel.   The Toronto Star described Ian Colford’s Evidence as “rootless and thoroughly atomized,” noting that the only link is protagonist Kostandin Bitri.   “What I had in mind was a novel in episodes, not necessarily causally connected,” Colford says. “I gave up on (writing it as a novel) fairly early on. I decided that what I was writing wasn’t really suited to that format.” So Evidence, which won the Margaret and John Savage First Book award in 2009, flashes a light on a series of events in Bitri’s life and leaves the reader to make sense of it all.     “I could just end with him in one place and then pick up again and he’d be somewhere else and I didn’t have to put in any connective tissue,” the author explains.     Colford opted not to title the stories and their order in the book is random—he pasted the files together to get an idea of his word count and just left it.   Colford, who works at Dalhousie’s Killam library, says young students have responded strongly to the book’s structure.   “I never thought of attributing that to our Twitter society, but I can see that that would have an influence,” he says. “The ability to jump into the book anywhere and take what they want from it and then put it aside, that seems to be something they really enjoy and appreciate.”   The novel-in-pieces captures the “fragmentation of modern experience,” he says.   Ryan Turner started writing a novel before abandoning it after forty pages in favour of short stories. But Benjamin Wallace, the protagonist from the dead novel, kept popping up and Turner ended up with eleven episodic tales from the twenty-something’s life in contemporary Halifax. He called it What We’re Made Of and his debut book hit the shelves last fall.   Ryan Turner Turner describes it as eleven small canvases that can be shown together, but in any order the reader chooses. His reflections on novel writing are instructive: “The difficult thing is there are different story lines, so many different places you can go— it’s hard to keep it all in your head at once.”   When done well, it “holds a bunch of time together for us and when everything is so broken down, it gives us some sense of cohesion,” he says.   But perhaps modern readers prefer to find things broken down.   Mark Jarman, who writes short stories and teaches creative writing at the University of New Brunswick, says short stories have ancient roots.   “People sitting around the fire didn’t tell a novel, they told a story,” he says. The old approach may be finding a new audience: Jarman compares the fractured format of the short story novel to the million-channel TV universe. Don’t like a tale? Flip to the next one.   “I’ve always been puzzled why stories aren’t more popular,” he says, conceding his poet friends laugh his problems.    In the 1920s and into the 1950s, many writers made a living out of short stories, including greats like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Kurt Vonnegut, but today writers tend to be judged on their novels. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Turner and Colford are both working on traditional novels.   Even Jarman turns his hand to long form. “I find myself pulling excerpts out and selling them as separate stories,” he laughs. The short story novel solves that problem. “You don’t have to fill in everything—‘For the next five years, I did this’—you can just make a jump and get into the next story.”   Colford’s and Turner’s works aren’t yet available in digital format, but perhaps in the near future, readers will be able to download single stories from their favourite writer to their iPod.   After all, Hemingway’s shortest of short stories would easily fit into a Tweet: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”            2010-04-29T18:08:31+00:00 http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/all-in-the-family/ http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/all-in-the-family/#When:18:03:39Z Will 2010 prove to be another stellar year for this talented writing couple? There’s an abundance of creativity flowing through the lives of Valerie and Brent Sherrard who live and write in Miramichi, New Brunswick. Valerie has over thirteen books published, written predominately for children and young adults. She’s been nominated and received numerous awards for her Shelby Belgarden Mystery Series (Dundurn). Her two picture books, There’s a COW Under My Bed and There’s a GOLDFISH In My Shoe (Tuckamore Books) are delightfully illustrated by son-in-law David Jardine. Her young adult novel Watcher (Dundurn), also released in 2009, is ranked a Canadian best-seller.   Brent Sherrard’s debut novel Wasted (James Lormier & Company Ltd.) was also released in the fall of 2009. Written for reluctant readers; this book paints with words the reality of substance abuse and how Jacob, the young protagonist, discovers just how powerful dependency can be.        AH: Do you share an office or studio in your home?   VS: No, we’re fortunate to each have our own. I tend to write at various times throughout the day and prefer to work with little distraction.     BS: Early morning works best for me. I appreciate having a personal space to write where I’m surrounded by items that give me inspiration.   AH: Is there subject matter that’s difficult to write about?   VS: My book Watcher was very difficult to write as it’s about a child who gets caught up in parent alienation. A subject not widely discussed, but due to the high divorce rate is an issue that’s unfortunately becoming far too common.   BS: For me, it’s not so much the difficulty but the realization that so many children are sad. I can relate to their pain as I write.   AH: Let’s talk about David Jardine, your gifted illustrator.   VS: David is our son-in-law and certainly gifted. I gave him the stories and was amazed  at how his zany illustrations brought my picture books to life. He also did a phenomenal job on the cover of my Tumbleweed Skies book. He discovered that he thoroughly enjoyed designing the cover, and welcomes the opportunity to do more.      BS: David loves to doodle. Combine that with his vivid imagination and the results are unbelievable.         In the photo: Brent and Valerie Sherrard with son-in-law David Jardine   photo: James Cripps, Soul Development   AH: Besides writing, what are you passionate about?   VS: Literacy is extremely important to me. I want to encourage children to read. Brent and I share a mutual passion to help underprivileged children. We currently sponsor through Christian organizations, a child in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia and Paraguay.   BS: I simply love life and the beauty of nature. I want to make a difference in the life of young people who struggle with substance abuse. Hopefully through writing and speaking in schools about issues that are important to teens.   AH: What books would you recommend?   VS: I recently read a diary entitled A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in a Conquered City. An amazing book that includes very private details, it’s understandable why the author is anonymous.       BS: I highly recommend The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam.      AH: Any words of wisdom for aspiring new writers?   VS: Read read read. I can’t stress enough the importance of reading; the more you read the better writer you’ll become. Find your niche; whatever comes natural is a good indicator.   BS: Never give up. Just keep going and see where it leads you. It’s better to try than regret later in life that you didn’t.     AH: Are there books in progress or due to be released?   VS: There’s always a book or two in progress. As for releases, my non-fiction book, Biography of Vanessa Hudgens is due this spring. And in the fall, there’s Accomplice, a short Young Adult book for reluctant readers, and The Glory Wind which is set in the Prairies of the 1940s. I’m so excited about this book as I believe it’s my best work to date.    BS: My novel Take Down will be released this fall. Another young adult novel for reluctant readers.   AH: Have you considered co-authoring a book?   VS: Yes, with my daughter Pamela Jardine who’s married to David. Her style of writing blends perfectly with mine.     BS: It wouldn’t work. Our writing styles are totally different. We’re writers who live, love and laugh together—that’s works really well. 2010-04-28T18:03:39+00:00 http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/and-the-awards-go-to/ http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/and-the-awards-go-to/#When:19:00:03Z Linden MacIntyre, Shandi Mitchell, SS Atlantic big winners at 2010 Atlantic Book Awards It was standing room only at the Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia Wednesday night as over 200 of the region's writers, illustrators, book publishers and readers celebrated the 33 nominees and recipients of 13 different literary prizes at the 2010 Atlantic Book Awards. CBC Radio host Costas Halavrezos and Newfoundland playwright, comedian and author Berni Stapleton guided the festive event with panache and lots of laughs.   Atlantic Book Awards hosts Berni Stapleton and Costas Halavrezos    Lenore Zann, Nova Scotia MLA for Truro-Bible Hill, opened the evening with greetings from Percy Paris, Minister of Tourism, Culture, and Heritage, and a personal pledge to champion the province's culture sector. Linden MacIntyre, Shandi Mitchell, and the book SS Atlantic took home two awards each:   Nova Scotia's Shandi Mitchell was arguably the biggest winner of the evening, taking home both the prestigious Margaret and John Savage First Book Award and the 20th anniversary Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize for her debut novel Under This Unbroken Sky (Penguin Canada), a devastating but beautifully evocative story of Ukrainian immigrant farmers on the Canadian prairies in the 1930s. Mitchell had just stepped off the plane from New Delhi where she was celebrated as a regional winner (Canada and Caribbean) of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. She received her two awards Wednesday night with grace and charm, explaining that she shortened her stay in India because she felt it was important to be part of the celebration in Nova Scotia where her novel began with support from the Writer's Federation of Nova Scotia and the Province.   Mitchell acknowledged the other fine writers nominated in the two categories: Binnie Brennan (Harbour View, Quattro Books) and Greg Malone (You Better Watch Out, Knopf Canada) for the Savage, and Linden MacIntyre (The Bishop's Man), and her fellow-Commonwealth Writers' Prize recipient and previous Raddall winner, Newfoundland's Michael Crummey (Galore, Doubleday Canada). The Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize, with its $15,000 purse, is the region's richest literary prize. Raddall's son, Tom Raddall, was on hand Wednesday to see Mitchell take home the prize named for his father.   SS Atlantic: The White Star Line's First Disaster at Sea (Goose Lane Editions) was the first double winner of the night. Co-written by Greg Cochkanoff and Bob Chaulk, this comprehensive account of the deadliest shipwreck of the nineteenth century received the Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing and the Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction. Dartmouth, NS diver Greg Cochkanoff devoted over 20 years to exhaustive research for the book; he died suddenly in 2008, at age 49, having just received notice that New Brunswick's Goose Lane Editions would publish his book. Cochkanoff's friend and diving partner, Bob Chaulk, also an author, completed the book. Chaulk was on hand to receive the two awards with Cochkanoff's window, Anne.   The other nominees for the D250 Award were Raoul R. Andersen and John K. Crellin for Mi'sel Joe: An Aboriginal Chief's Journey (Flanker Press) and Mike Heffernan for Rig: An Oral History of the Ocean Ranger Disaster (Creative Publishing). Stephen Kimber (IWK: A Century of Caring for Families, Nimbus Publishing) and Anne Murray's memoir, written with Michael Posner (All of Me, Knopf Canada) were the other two nominees for the Dartmouth Non-fiction award.   Linden MacIntyre's Giller-winning novel, The Bishop's Man was further decorated with both the Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Atlantic Independent Booksellers' Choice Award. MacIntyre, long-time co-host of CBC Television's the fifth estate, was on hand to accept his awards, which he did with characteristic eloquence and humility. In acknowledging the assembled talent he stated that, "Atlantic Canada produces some of the finest novelists on the planet." His fellow nominees for the Dartmouth Fiction award were George Elliott Clarke (I & I, Goose Lane Editions) and Anna Quon (Migration Songs, Invisible Publishing). The other two books that were favoured by independent booksellers in the region were Crummey's Galore and David Adams Richards's God Is.: My Search for Faith in a Secular World, both published by Doubleday Canada.   The 33rd Evelyn Richardson Memorial Literary Prize for Non-fiction, the longest-running writing award in Atlantic Canada, was presented by previous winner Silver Donald Cameron. Coal Black Heart: The Story of Coal and the Lives it Ruled (Doubleday Canada) by Halifax journalist John DeMont uses Nova Scotian mining towns to tell the history of an industry that has dominated the lives of so many. The other nominees for the Richardson were Jason I. Brown (Our Days are Numbered: How Mathematics Orders our Lives, McClelland & Stewart) and past winner Harry Bruce (Page Fright: Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers, McClelland & Stewart).   Don Domanski, Governor General's Award-winning poet, presented the Atlantic Poetry Prize to Tonja Gunvaldsen Klaassen of Halifax for Lean-To (Gaspereau Press), a collection of poems about the nature of both the domesti c and the various places that we call home. Her fellow nominees were 2005 Governor General's award and two-time Atlantic Poetry Prize winner Anne Compton (Asking Questions Indoors and Out, Fitzhenry & Whiteside) and Zach Wells (Track & Trace, Biblioasis), both natives of Prince Edward Island.   It was also the 20th anniversary of the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature, which was presented by Sara Smith, sister of Ann Connor Brimer, to Halifax's Jill MacLean for The Present Tense of Prinny Murphy (Fitzhenry & Whiteside). A sequel to The Nine Lives of Travis Keating, this novel follows lovable young Prinny as she deals with her mother's addiction and the school bullies. Also nominated were Valerie Sherrard (Tumbleweed Skies, Fitzhenry & Whiteside) and Darlene Ryan (Five Minutes More, Orca), both of New Brunswick.   Scott A. Keating won the Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration for What Colour is the Ocean? (Flanker Press; written by Gary Collins with Maggie Rose Parsons). Keating's art provides a beautiful backdrop through this four-season look at the sea. Presented by Libby Creelman of the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, the award was established in memory of Lillian Shepherd, a buyer for Halifax bookstore The Book Room and an enthusiastic supporter of books and writing. Kathy (HildaRose) Kaulbach (Johnny and the Gipsy Moth, Tuckamore Books) and Marie Moore (Cape Breton Wonders, Cape Breton University Press) were the other illustrators nominated for "The Lil." Councillor Gloria McCluskey handed out the two HRM Mayor's Awards:   The Mayor's Award for Excellence in Book Illustration was presented to Mike Holmes for This American Drive: An Illustrated Road Trip (Invisible Publishing). Holmes's artwork is full of charm and wit as it describes his journey from Halifax to Texas.   The Mayor's Award for Cultural Achievement in Literature went to Trudy Carey. Co-founder and manager for 31 years of Woozles Bookstore (retired) and a dedicated volunteer, Carey's contribution to reading and literacy in Nova Scotia has been invaluable.   The field guide Birds of Newfoundland by Ian Warkentin and Sandy Newton, published by Boulder Publications of Portugal Cove, NL won the APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award. Administered by the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association (APMA), the prize goes to the Atlantic Canadian publisher of the printed book that best exemplifies publishing activity in Atlantic Canada. The prize, sponsored by Friesens Corporation, awards the publisher with $4,000 and the writer with $1,000. Prizes for the runners-up--co-authors David A. Francis and Robert M. Leavitt and publisher, Goose Lane Editions (A Passamaquoddy-Maliseet Dictionary / Peskotomuhkati Wolastoqewi Latuwewakon) and novelist Trudy J. Morgan-Cole and publisher, Breakwater Books (By the Rivers of Brooklyn)--are sponsored by Hignell Book Printing who bestow a $1,000 printing credit to each publisher and $250 to each author. The prize was presented by Doug Symington, Director of Sales at Friesens Corporation. Atlantic Book Awards 2010-04-15T19:00:03+00:00 http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/atlantic-book-awards/ http://www.atlanticpublishers.ca/articles/entry/atlantic-book-awards/#When:12:45:44Z The best of Atlantic Canada's authors and publishers will be celebrated at a glitzy gala hosted by Newfoundland's Queen of comedy Berni Stapleton and Costas Halavrezos of CBC Radio's Maritime Noon. With the spirit of the Olympic Games still lingering in the air, Atlantic Canadian authors, illustrators and publishers will now take their turn at the podium. The 2010 Atlantic Book Awards and Festival springs to life on Saturday April 10 and runs until Sunday April 18 with free literary events in all four Atlantic Provinces. Festival details will be available at atlanticbookawards.ca, as well as on the Atlantic Book Awards Society  Facebook page and Twitter account (twitter.com/atlbookawards). In addition, look for a Festival brochure at local bookstores in early April. The awards ceremony, naming winners in the categories of fiction,  non-fiction, poetry and children’s literature, is always a highlight of the festival. Held on Wednesday, April 14 at Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth, N.S., the soiree will be cohosted byNewfoundland playwright, comedienne and author Berni Stapleton and Costas Halavrezos, host of CBC Radio’s Maritime Noon. The doors open at 6:00 p.m. with a silent auction in support of the festival before the show kicks off at 7:00 p.m. Booksellers will be on hand and cash bars will be open all evening. “The Atlantic Book Awards Society was delighted by the success of last year’s festival, and the 2010 Book Awards and Festival promises to be even bigger and better,” says Heather MacKenzie, Board Chair of the Atlantic Book Awards Society. Bigger and better it certainly will be. Earlier this year, the Society announced that the three awards administered by the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia (The Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, The Evelyn Richardson Memorial Non-fiction Award and the Atlantic Poetry Prize) along with the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature,will once again be part of theAtlantic BookAwards and Festival.The 2010 festival is particularly special as both the Brimer and the Raddall Award, the region’s richest literary prize, celebrate  their twentieth anniversary this year. In total, thirteen awards will be presented, including the two HRM Mayor’s Awards—for Excellence in Book Illustration and for Literary Achievement—for which there are no shortlists. Mark your calendars and don't miss the chance to show your support for the contendersand see who is crowned the champion of their field at the 2010 Atlantic Book Awards ceremony on April 14. Atlantic Book Awards 2010-04-07T12:45:44+00:00