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2015 Alberta Literary Award Shortlisted Authors

 

Katie BicKatie Bickell - photokell lives in Sherwood Park, Alberta, with her husband and young daughters. Her Howard O’Hagan shortlisted story, “But for the Streetlamps and the Moon and All the Stars”, published in Tahoma Literary Review, was inspired by a 2014 Calgary crime, and is one story in a collection of linked short fiction set in Alberta. Currently in the last stages of completion, other stories from this collection have been published in A Cappella Zoo, Bare Fiction Magazine, and Punchnel’s, with one, “Northside Delacroix” winning the Alberta Views Fiction Contest, 2014. Please read more of Katie’s work at katiebickell.com.

 

Ted Bishop - photo

Ted Bishop is the author of the G-G nominated Riding with Rilke: Reflections on Motorcycles and Books, named a Best Book by the Globe and Mail, CBC’s Talking Books, and Playboy magazine. His new book, The Social Life of Ink: Culture, Wonder, and Our Relationship with the Word, combines travel memoir with cultural history as it moves from Samarkand to Budapest, from Chinese ink sticks to Bic ballpoint pens, and explores how writing is making a comeback in the digital age. Ted teaches at the University of Alberta and writes with a fountain pen.

 

Jennifer Bowering DeliJennifer Delisle - photosle’s book of poetry/family memoir, The Bosun Chair, is forthcoming from NeWest Press. She has published poetry, fiction and non-fiction in magazines and anthologies across North America. She has a PhD in English from UBC, and is the author of the scholarly work The Newfoundland Diaspora: Mapping the Literature of Out-Migration. Find her at jenniferdelisle.ca and on Twitter @JenBDelisle.

 

 

Tim Bowling - photoTim Bowling is the author of four novels, two works of non-fiction, and twelve collections of poetry. His work has received several honours, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Writers Trust of Canada nominations, five Alberta Book Awards, two Governor General’s Award nominations, and the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize. Originally from the west coast, he has lived in Edmonton for the past twenty years.

 

 

Ali Bryan - photoAli Bryan is a personal trainer and author based in Calgary. Her debut novel, Roost, won the 2014 Alberta Literary Awards Georges Bugnet award for Fiction and was the 2014 selection for One Book Nova Scotia. She has twice long-listed for the CBC Canada Writes Creative Non-Fiction prize. Her essay “The Rink” will appear in the upcoming anthology Forty Below Project Volume 2. She recently completed her second novel, The Figgs, and a children’s picture book titled Wake Me Up When You Get Home.

 

 

Cheryl Foggo - photoCheryl Foggo has been published and produced extensively in multiple genres. She received the Sondra Kelly Screenplay Award from the Writers Guild of Canada and was named Professional of The Year by the Black Gold Awards Society of Alberta in 2013. Her latest children’s book is Dear Baobab and her most recent play, John Ware Reimagined, garnered sold out houses in Calgary in 2014. She is delighted to have the play shortlisted for the WGA Drama Award.  Cheryl has a documentary based on the life of John Ware in development with the NFB, and is working on a new novel.

 

Susan Hagan - photoSusan Hagan, a journalist with a theatre background, has worked for newspapers and magazines in Western Canada and The Bahamas since the early 1990s. She founded the Edmonton Story Slam in 2006 with her sister, husband and friends. She has free-lanced for a decade, producing works that probe the facts for meaning, history for context, and the present for relevance. She has explored the demise of traditional media, conflicts with Catholic identity (a one-woman Fringe play), regrets and freedoms of a vagabond life, the death of the family farm, unfairness for women writers, manipulative narratives about women, and her grandmother’s journal.

 

Bobbi Junior - photoBobbi Junior writes and speaks about caregiving, drawing from two life-altering experiences. A devastating accident left her teenage daughter paralyzed, and is described in the anthology Telling Truths – Storying Motherhood. Bobbi’s first book, The Reluctant Caregiver, depicts chaos mixed with unexpected victories and not a little humour as she tries to help her mother withstand the encroaching grip of dementia. Bobbi lives and works in Edmonton, Alberta. Visit her blog at bobbijunior.com or listen to “Not Me, Lord” each Monday on HopeStreamRadio.com.

 

 

Lee Kvern - photoLee Kvern is the award-winning author of short stories and novels. Afterall selected for 2013 Canada Reads (Regional), nominated for Alberta Books Awards. The Matter of Sylvie nominated for Alberta Book Awards and Ottawa Relit Award. Her short stories are also well celebrated: National winner CBC Literary Award, winner: Western Magazine Awards, Hazel Hilles Memorial Short Fiction Prize, Howard ‘O’ Hagan Award. Her work has been produced for CBC Radio, published in Event, Descant, Air Canada enRoute. subTerrain. On-line: Joyland.ca, Foundpress.com and LittleFiction.com. 7 Ways to Sunday is out now. Lee Kvern is the past Alberta Writer’s Guild Mentor 2014 and former Writer-in-Residence for the Canadian Authors Association 2013. www.leekvern.com

 

Sarah Lang - photoSarah Lang was born in Edmonton. She completed an MFA at Brown University. Her second book For Tamara was published this year by Anansi Books. Her debut poetry collection is The Work of Days (Coach House Books). Her web site is arimneste.com.

 

 

Victor Lethbridge - photoVictor Lethbridge has been touring to First Nation, Metis, and provincial schools for over 10 years presenting his inspirational youth workshops. He incorporates self-produced music and film footage with storytelling to address the critical issues of how to prevent bullying, building self-esteem, and developing essential leadership skills. Five years ago Victor released his first book, the award winning Little Chief and Mighty Gopher: The Pemmican Frenzy, and now brings a third book to his rapidly growing audience of readers. Victor has teamed with multi-national corporations and aboriginal agencies in furthering literacy and aboriginal culture through the stories and the Sioux, Blackfoot, and Cree word translations which accompany each book. Victor is a member of Wood Mountain Lakota First Nation with roots tracing back to Chief Sitting Bull. He resides in southern Alberta with his wife and family.

 

Lynette Loeppky - photoLynette Loeppky was born and raised on the Manitoba prairie by Mennonite parents. After graduation from the University of Calgary with an Arts degree she discovered an aptitude for sales and launched into a corporate sales career. She has traveled extensively and lived for an extended time in Denmark, but counts amongst her greatest adventures the eight years that she and her partner Cecile tended an Old MacDonald-style hobby farm in southern Alberta. Lynette now lives in Calgary with her dogs, Noddy and Charlie, who do an excellent job of getting her out into the elements on a daily basis.

 

Conni Massing - photo

Conni Massing’s recent stage credits include The Invention of Romance, premiered by Workshop West Theatre; Oh! Christmas Tree, commissioned and premiered by Lunchbox Theatre; and several productions of her adaptation of W.O Mitchell’s Jake and the Kid. Her writing has been recognized by the Academy of Cinema and Television, the Betty Mitchell Awards, The Writers’ Guild of Alberta; the Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards and AMPIA, including her recent nomination (best screenplay under 30 minutes) for her short film Voila! Conni is currently the president of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and partners with Curtis Gillespie and Scot Morison in The Company of Writers, a multi-media production company.


Kim McCullough - photo
 Kim McCullough is a writer and teacher from Calgary. Kim’s debut novel Clearwater won a 2014 High Plains Award, and her essay “Night/Light” won the Writers’ Guild of Alberta 2014 Jon Whyte Memorial Essay award. Kim mentors for the WGA and UBC’s Booming Ground, and facilitates various writing workshops for teens and adults throughout Western Canada. Kim has work forthcoming in Room Magazine.

 

 

Wendy McGrath - photoWendy McGrath’s most recent novel North East (the second novel in the “Santa Rosa Trilogy”) has been shortlisted for the WGA George Bugnet award. Her last novel Santa Rosa was shortlisted for the 2012 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize. Her second collection of poetry, A Revision of Forward, is forthcoming from NeWest Press in September. Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been widely published.

 

 

Sheryl Normandeau - photoSheryl Normandeau lives, writes, and gardens in Calgary (and blogs about it all at FloweryProse.com). Her stories have appeared in several issues of Ficta Fabula (Pages of Stories), as well as in the anthologies Time-Traveling CoffersDifferent Dragons, and Universe Horribilis, among others.  She works for the Calgary Public Library.

 

 

Sharanpal Ruprai - photoSharanpal Ruprai earned her PhD from the Department of Humanities at York University. From Winnipeg to Calgary to Toronto and back to Calgary, Ruprai has been an active member in literary communities across Canada. Seva, is Ruprai’s debut poetry collection. It is a poetic journey into the life of a Sikh girl; the narrative, though unique perspectives about culture, gender and ritual, readers enter a world that is usually inaccessible. Published by local Canadian publisher, Frontenac House, Seva, was launched this past fall. Currently, Sharanpal Ruprai is teaching at the University of Calgary and she is working on her second poetry collection and a short story collection around the themes of religion, rebellion and love.

 

Leanne Shirtliffe - photoLeanne Shirtliffe is the author of the picture books The Change Your Name Store (2014) and No More Beige Food (2016). She has also written two humour books, Don’t Lick the Minivan: And Other Things I Never Thought I’d Say to My Kids (2013) and Mommyfesto: We Solemnly Swear ($%&!)…Because We Have Kids (2014). Leanne once won the caber toss championship in Bahrain and chased transvestites in Bangkok. She and her family now live in Calgary, where Leanne teaches high school English.

 

 

Fred Stenson - photoIn the fall of 2014, Doubleday Canada published Fred Stenson’s sixth novel and ninth book of fiction, Who By Fire. Stenson is the author of eighteen books in all, and 150 films and videos. His book titles include the historical novels The Great Karoo, Lightning, and The Trade. He has won several awards for his fiction:  the WGA George Bugnet Novel Award (2001), The City of Edmonton Book Prize (2001), and the Grant MacEwan Writer’s Prize (2001 and 2006). The Trade was shortlisted for the Giller Prize in 2000. The Great Karoo was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction in 2008. Stenson has directed the Wired Writing Studio at The Banff Centre for 15 years. He is a regular columnist for Alberta Views magazine. He lives in Cochrane, Alberta.

 

Chris Turner - photoChris Turner is one of Canada’s leading writers and speakers on sustainability. His most recent book is How to Breathe Underwater, a collection of his award-winning essays and feature writing. His bestsellers The Leap and The Geography of Hope, both of which were National Business Book Award finalists, provide a definitive overview of the global green economy. He was a 2013 Berton House writer-in-residence in Dawson City, Yukon. He lives in Calgary with his wife and two children, where he is working on a book about the oilsands.

 

 

David van Belle - photoBorn in Amsterdam and raised all over Canada, David van Belle is a Calgary-based director, actor, playwright and theatre deviser.  He is currently Co-Artistic Director of Ghost River, and recently premiered The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst, created with fellow Co-AD Eric Rose at Alberta Theatre Projects.  As Co-AD of Ghost River, David has co-created such works as The Highest Step in the World, Tomorrow’s Child, Reverie, and Everything Is Terribly Nice Here. Last year David created a new show, Of Fighting Age, with Verb Theatre and taught devised creation at the University of Alberta.  His new play, Liberation Days, premiered last fall at Theatre Calgary.

 

Richard Van Camp - photo

Richard Van Camp is a proud member of the Tlicho Nation from Fort Smith, NWT. He has 13 books out in most genres. To work with Julie Flett on Little You and to be published with Orca Book Publishers is one of his proudest accomplishments. You can visit Richard on Facebook, Twitter and at www.richardvancamp.com. Mahsi cho!

 

 

Rudy Wiebe - photoRudy Wiebe, widely published internationally and winner of numerous awards, including two Governor General’s Awards for Fiction, is the author of ten novels, five short-story collections, and ten non-fiction books. His most recent publications include an autobiography, Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest (2006), the biography Big Bear in the Extraordinary Canadians series (2008), and his Collected Short Stories, 1955 – 2010. His latest novel, Come Back, won the 2015 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and lives with his wife Tena in Edmonton.

 

 

 

 

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