Winner of the 19th annual Ann Conor Brimer Award for Children's Literature:

Jill MacLean, The Nine Lives of Travis Keating
Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2008 ISBN 978-1554551040

Just 365 days — that's how long Travis has agreed to his dad's experiment of moving to a tiny coastal community in Newfoundland. But in no time he's counting those days. Only a few kids show interest in him: Hector, a strange boy who grunts; and Prinny, a girl as scraggly as her ponytail. And then there's Hud, the school's meanest bully, who's just itching for a fight with the new "townie." But there are worse things than loneliness. When Travis discovers a colony of abandoned cats and attempts to care for them himself, it isn't long before he's in over his head. Who will help him keep the starving animals safe from the likes of Hud and his pals? And how many of his lives will Travis use up in the process?

Jill MacLean is the author of a collection of poetry, The Brevity of Red, which was shortlisted for the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Acorn-Plantos Award. She has also published a history of Prince Edward Island, Jean Pierre Roma: of the Company of the East of Isle St. Jean. Jill lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia.

Hi-res pictures: cover, author

More information: WFNS, author's website, CM Magazine (review)

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Winner of the 12th Annual Atlantic Poetry Prize:

Brent MacLaine, Shades of Green
Acorn Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-1894838351

The poems in Brent MacLaine’s Shades of Green consistently demonstrate a keen ear for the music in words, an observant eye giving rise to precise description and an inventive and playful touch with metaphor. MacLaine can handle big ideas, deftly casting the abstract in concrete terms. His poems are full of surprising and lovely juxtapositions. He can be funny and profound at the same moment. Shades of Green reveals Brent MacLaine to be a masterful poet in fine form.

Shades of Green is Brent MacLaine’s third collection of poetry which includes Wind and Root (Véhicule Press) and These Fields Were Rivers (Goose Lane Editions). He’s also been widely published in literary journals and such anthologies as Landmarks: An Anthology of New Atlantic Poetry of the Land and Coastlines: The Poetry of Atlantic Canada. Brent’s teaching career has taken him to universities in Vancouver, Edmonton and Singapore. Since 1991, he has been a professor of English at UPEI, where he has received the prestigious 3M Award for excellence in teaching. A fifth generation Islander, he lives today in Rice Point, PEI, in a new house that stands next door to the vacant MacLaine family homestead.

Hi-res pictures: cover, author

More information: Acorn Press, The Buzz (2000 article)

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Winner of the 32nd annual Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction:

William Naftel, Halifax At War: Searchlights, Squadrons and Submarines 1939-1945
Formac, 2008 ISBN 978-0887807398

From early September 1939, Halifax was at war. For the next six years, the city was uniquely affected by the war’s events. Using a rich blend of historical, biographic and archival sources, Bill Naftel provides a new perspective on the impact of the war on Halifax, but also on Canada and Canadians. Incredible demands were placed on Halifax, which was barely able to cope as thousands of soldiers and sailors streamed through every day. Thousands of others arrived to take up war-time work. Welcomed initially for the infusion of prosperity, the influx created problems for everyone with liquor as a flashpoint in a town where archaic liquor laws prevented a sailor from enjoying the rare day off.

Born during the Second World War, Bill spent his first five years in Edmonton while his father, an officer in the Royal Canadian Navy, shepherded convoys back and forth across the North Atlantic. By 1952, Bill was enrolled in Tower Road School in Halifax, followed by Cornwallis Jr. High, QEH, King’s College and Dalhousie University. He began working in the Public Archives of Canada, followed by Parks Canada, returning to Halifax in 1975 to assume the position of Senior Historian and Chief of History for the Atlantic Region. Since retiring from public service in 1990, Bill has been hard at work researching and writing, releasing a monograph, The Building of All Saints Cathedral (St. Agnes Press, 2006), Prince Edward’s Legacy (Formac, 2005) and most recently, Halifax at War.

Hi-res pictures: cover, author

More information: Formac

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Winner of the 19th annual Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prize:

Douglas Arthur Brown, Quintet
Key Porter Books, 2008 ISBN: 978-1552639979

Adrian, Rory, and Cameron are identical triplets summoned home to Cape Breton by the sudden death of their parents. Inseparable in youth, they’ve drifted apart as adults, and after the funeral they agree to keep in touch through journals in which each recounts the steps that led him away from the other two. At every critical step looms the shadow of Talbot, the oldest brother, and the secrets he’s hoarded for a generation.

Douglas Arthur Brown is also the author of the novel A Deadly Harvest; a collection of short fiction, The Komodo Dragon and Other Stories; and two children’s books, The Magic Compass and Archibald's Boo-boo. He lived in Toronto and Copenhagen for many years and now lives in his native Cape Breton.

Hi-res pictures: cover, author

More information: WFNS, The Coast (review), Quill and Quire (review), The Writers' Union of Canada (Bio and Review Quotes)

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