Amazon.ca recently announced the nominees for their 36th annual First Novel Award and Autobiography of Childhood by Sina Queyras, which was published by LPG member Coach House Books, was among the five nominees.

Autobiography of Childhood follows six adult siblings, one of whom is dying. They haven't quite recoved from the loss of one of their number during their childhood and the impending death of Therese forces them to grapple with their grief, both past and present. The novel weaves together a nuanced family portrait and the reaches of childhood grief.

Announced February 21st on CBC's Metro Morning, the Toronto Public Library has selected Girls Fall Down by Maggie Helwig, published by our very own Coach House Books, as this year's One Book Toronto, part of their Keep Toronto Reading program.

Girls Fall Down shows us how quickly paranoia can take hold, after a single girl falls down in a Toronto subway. Soon panic has spread throughout the entire city. Alex was a witness to the first incident. After encountering an old girlfriend he sets out to help her find her schizophrenic brother who is missing on the panic-stricken streets of Toronto.

Congratulations to LPG member Thistledown Press on receiving an OLA Forest of Reading Evergreen Award for the short story collection Mennonites Don't Dance by Darcie Friesen Hossack.

The Evergreen Award nominees, which could be any Canadian adult fiction or non-fiction title, are chosen by a panel of experienced librarians across Ontario. The winner will be announced during Public Library Week in October. To see a full list of the nominees, please visit the Forest of Reading website.

The Literary Press Group attended the Ontario Library Association's annual Super Conference last week in Toronto on behalf of all our member publishers. The exhibition floor was bustling with librarians, teachers, and students alike, all excited about reading and literacy.

At the LPG booth, we were kept busy with several author signings:

Susan Satham signed copies of her new art mystery, The Painter's Craft (Bayeux Arts).

Lisa de Nikolits signed copies of her novel West of Wawa (Inanna Publications), about a woman named Benny who travels across Canada.

Shari Lapena signed copies of her novel Happiness Economics (Brindle & Glass), about a stalled poet married to a success economist. Hilarity ensues.

The 2012 shortlist for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction was announced this morning in Toronto. We're thrilled that Afflictions & Departures, written by Madeline Sonik and published by LPG member, Anvil Press, was nominated.

Afflictions & Departures is a collection of essays that recall the authors life. However, unlike a traditional memoir, Sonik connects the daily events of her life with the larger social, historical, and scientific trends of the time.

Nominees will appear at an author brunch at Ben McNally's in Toronto on March 4th before the winner is announced on March 5th. A full list of nominees and more information on the Charles Taylor Prize can be found on their website.

The Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador recently announced the nominees for their annual Heritage and History Book Award. This year the award is recognizing works of poetry and non-fiction that best exemplifies excellence in interpreting the heritage and history of the province.

Congratulations to three LPG member publishers on their nominations:

Where Genesis Begins by Tom Dawe with artwork by Gerald Squires, published by Breakwater Books,

Never More There by Stephen Rowe, published by Nightwood Editions,

Battlefront Newfoundland: Britain's Oldest Colony at War, 1939 - 1945 by Jack Fitzgerald, published by Creative Book Publishing.

Celebrating the best in Canadian literary non-fiction, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is given to a title that excells in three areas: style; thought and perception; and superb language. For the first time in the history of the award a long list has been revealed.

And we're so excited they did, since we have two publishers with books on the list:

Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live by Ray Robertson, published by Biblioasis

Afflictions and Departures: Essays by Madeline Sonik, published by Anvil Press

The short list will be announced on January 10, 2012 and the winner will be named on March 5, 2012 in Toronto. For a complete list of the titles long listed for this year's award, visit the Charles Taylor Prize website.

The Globe & Mail recently published their annual list of Top 100 titles, including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. Showing their good taste, some LPG publishers had titles that made the cut:

Poetry

Phil Hall's Killdeer, published by BookThug, which recently won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry.

"Phil Hall’s Governor-General’s Award-winning Killdeer is a literary memoir in the form of a lyrical essay, which he rescues from its excesses and turns into something as adventurous as it is readable. Hall is one of the most inventive, and least pretentious, poets we have. If he’s not a household name yet, he deserves to be." – Paul Vermeersch

Canadian Fiction

The Meagre Tarmac by Clark Blaise, published by Biblioasis.

The Quebec Writers' Federation announced the winners of their annual literary awards on November 22nd at a gala event at the Lion d'Or in Montreal and there was a lot to celebrate for some of our members:

Ann Scowcroft won the Concordia University First Book Prize for The Truth of Houses, published by Brick Books,

Gabe Foreman won the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry for A Complete Encyclopedia of Different Types of People, published by Coach House Books, and

Dimitri Nasrallah won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction for Niko, published by Vehicule Press.

For a complete list of winners, check out the QWF website.

The winners of the 2011 Governor General's Literary Awards were announced on November 15th at a news conference at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. We'd like to offer our congratulations to all the winners but especially to Phil Hall, author of Killdeer, published by BookThug, which won the poetry award; and to Erin Shields, author of If We Were Birds, published by Playwrights Canada Press, which won the drama award.

All the winners will be presented their awards on November 24th in Ottawa at Rideau Hall by Governor General David Johnston. For a full list of winners visit the Canada Council for the Arts website.