Monday, April 30, 2012

Melanie Schnell: Regina Writer, Sudan Story

In April, Regina writer Melanie Schnell launched her first novel, While the Sun is Above Us (Freehand Books). Set in Sudan, While the Sun is Above Us tells the intertwined stories of two women, one from Southern Sudan who was enslaved during the brutal civil war, the other a Canadian aid worker.

Melanie Schnell - photo by Shelley Banks
Melanie Schnell autographs While the Sun 
is Above Us at her Regina Launch © SB 

And yes, disclosure: Melanie and I recently studied creative writing at the University of B.C., in the Master of Fine Arts program. We were in different streams, but the Saskatchewan writing community is so supportive that we've grown to know each other better here than we did during our optional residency graduate programs in Vancouver.

While the Sun is Above Us, by Melanie Schnell - photo by Shelley Banks
A table of books at Melanie Schnell's Regina launch  © SB

Congrats, Melanie — and you know you have an open invitation for an in-depth interview here on Latitude Drifts! I am fascinated by the back-story of this novel. (And by the writing, too!)

~~~~~

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Anne McDonald: To The Edge of the Sea

Huge congrats to Anne McDonald for winning the Best First Book Award at the 2012 Saskatchewan Book Awards with To the Edge of the Sea (Thistledown Press).

The book is a delight — and I have  been honoured to watch its progress from manuscript to print to winner! Congrats, Anne!

John A. Macdonald figurine drinks champagne - photo by Shelley Banks
John A. Macdonald, Canada's First Prime Minister 
and a character in To the Edge of the Sea,
drinks a toast to the award. © SB 

Anne McDonald - photo by Shelley Banks
Anne prepares for the podium  © SB  

Anne McDonald - photo by Shelley Banks
And steps up, to claim her prize  © SB  

Here's what last night's Saskatchewan Book Awards program guide had to say about To the Edge of the Sea, selected by jurors Joan Barfoot, Christine Cowley and Katherine Gordon:
In the mid-19th century, three young Prince Edward Islanders explore their disparate futures at home and away, in a debut novel that is lyrical and precise in its descriptions of land, sea and people, and powerful in its accounts of both personal and political histories of the province and country. 
~~~~~

2012 Saskatchewan Book Awards

We had a great time at the 2012 Saskatchewan Book Awards last night. Guest speaker was Montreal/Saskatchewan writer Mark Abley, and there were two winners at our table — Anne McDonald, who took the prize for Best First Book with To the Edge of the Sea (Thistledown Press), and Gord Hunter, who won the raffle with all of the winning books (and many other treats, including dinner at The Willow on Wascana...  with me!).

Anne McDonald - photo by Shelley Banks
Anne McDonald accepts her prize for Best First Book
from a representative of National Bank Financial © SB 

Mark Abley - photo by Shelley Banks
Mark Abley on "Stop Tweeting, Start Reading!" © SB 

Mark Cronlund Anderson, Carmen L Robertson - photo by Shelley Banks
Mark Cronlund Anderson and Carmen L. Robertson,
collect one of their three prizes. 
© SB 
Other winners included Carmen L. Robertson and Mark Cronlund Anderson whose book Seeing Red (University of Manitoba Press) won in three categories: Scholarly Writing, First People's Writing and the Regina Book Award. Darren R. Prefontaine won the Saskatchewan Book of the Year with Li Chef Michif, Jeff Park won the Saskatoon Book Award with the cellophane sky: jazz poems (Hagios Press); Harold Johnson won Fiction Award for The Cast Stone (Thistledown Press); Thelma Poirier, Poetry, with Rock Creek Blues (Coteau Books); and Adele Dueck, Children's Literature, for Racing Home Coteau Books). For more, see the Saskatchewan Book Awards website.

Congrats to all winners — and all who were short-listed for the awards!

~~~~~

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