The Writers Guild of Alberta revealed the winners of the 2012 Alberta Literary Awards in Calgary on June 9, 2012 in conjunction with the Book Publishers Association of Alberta’s Alberta Book Publishing Awards and the Edmonton Public Library’s Alberta Readers Choice Award. More than 200 writers attended the 2012 Alberta Book Awards Gala, part of The Writers Guild of Alberta’s 2012 “The Adventure of the Process” Calgary Conference.
This celebration marked the 30th anniversary of the Alberta Literary Awards and brought writers from across Alberta and Canada. The Edmonton Public Library also presented the winner of the highly anticipated Alberta Readers’ Choice Award to Wayne Arthurson for his book Fall from Grace.
The Alberta Literary Awards were created by the Writers Guild of Alberta in 1982 to recognize excellence in writing by Alberta authors. This year, jurors deliberated over 195 submissions to select 23 finalists in eight categories.
The Writers Guild of Alberta is the largest provincial writers’ organization in Canada, and was formed in 1980 to provide a meeting ground and collective voice for the writers of the province. Its mission is to inspire, connect, support, encourage and promote writers and writing, to safeguard the freedom to write and to read, and to advocate for the well-being of writers.
For more information, please contact the Writers Guild of Alberta at (780) 422-8174 or visit www.writersguild.ab.ca.
2012 Alberta Literary Awards Shortlist Winners
R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature
- Cathy Ostlere (Calgary)—Karma, Puffin Canada
Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction (Sponsored by The Banff Centre)
- Lynn Coady (Edmonton)—The Antagonist, House of Anansi Press
Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction
- Alice Major (Edmonton)—Intersecting Sets: A Poet Looks at Science, University of Alberta Press
Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama (Sponsored by Alberta Views)
- Nicole Moeller (Edmonton)—An Almost Perfect Thing
Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry (Supported by Stephan V. Benediktson)
- Tim Bowling (Edmonton)—Tenderman, Nightwood Editions
Amber Bowerman Memorial Travel Writing Award (Supported by Ann Campbell)
- Alison Karlene Hodgins (Grande Prairie)—“A World Away”
James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction (Sponsored by Western Financial Group’s West Magazine)
- Jannie Edwards (Edmonton)—“All Night Mirror: Notes Toward an Elegy”
Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story (Supported by Vanna Tessier and Guy Tessier)
- Amy Bright (Lethbridge)—“Look at it This Way”, Character I Press
Golden Pen Award for Lifetime Achievement
- Fred Stenson (Calgary)
