Faculty and alumni make Saskatchewan Book Awards shortlist

By Chris Putnam

More than a dozen alumni and faculty of the College of Arts and Science have been shortlisted for 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards.

The award winners will be announced at the 27^th Saskatchewan Book Awards Ceremony on April 25 at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina.

Alumnus Victor Cicansky (BEd’65, BA’67) is nominated for the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport First Book Award for his memoir Up From Garlic Flats.

Don Fuchs (BA’69), who coedited Imagining Child Welfare in the Spirit of Reconciliation with Dorothy Badry, H. Monty Montgomery, Daniel Kikulwe and Marlynn Bennett, is shortlisted for theUniversity of Regina Faculty of Arts/University of Saskatchewan College of Arts and Science Jennifer Welsh Scholarly Writing Award. The book is also shortlisted for the SaskBooks Publishing in Education Award.

Jason Heit (BA’99, BA’04, MA’07) is nominated for three awards for his debut novel Kaidenberg’s Best Sons. Heit’s book is under consideration for theCity of Saskatoon and Saskatoon Public Library Saskatoon Award; the Muslims for Peace and Justice Fiction Award; and the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport First Book Award.

University registrar Russell Isinger (BA’88, MA’97) is shortlisted along with Department of Political Studies senior policy fellow and former University of Saskatchewan chancellor Roy Romanow (BA’60, LLB’64, LLD’07). Isinger and Romanow are coeditors of Back to Blakeney: Revitalizing the Democratic State, along with John Whyte and St. Thomas More College faculty member Dr. David McGrane (PhD). The book is nominated for the University of Regina Faculty of Arts/University of Saskatchewan College of Arts and Science Jennifer Welsh Scholarly Writing Award.

Alexandra Popoff (MA’98) and her biography Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century are shortlisted for two awards: the University of Saskatchewan President’s Office Non-Fiction Book Award and the University of Regina Faculty of Arts/University of Saskatchewan College of Arts and Science Jennifer Welsh Scholarly Writing Award.

For his latest book, Voice: On Writing With Deafness, Dr. Adam Pottle (PhD’16) is nominated for both the Regina Public Library Book of the Year Award and the City of Saskatoon and Saskatoon Public Library Saskatoon Award. Pottle is also the 2020 recipient of the College of Arts and Science’s Young Alumni of Influence Award.

Paula Jane Remlinger (BA’94, CACE’99, BED’00, CTESL’00, MA’06) is shortlisted for the Poetry Award for her book of poetry, This Hole Called January.

J. Frank Roy (BA’48, BED’53, MA’68, LLD’05) and Alan R. Smith (BSc’70, SC’72) edited Birds of Saskatchewan along with College of Medicine Prof. Emeritus C. Stuart Houston. Their book is in the running for two awards: theRegina Public Library Book of the Year Award and the University of Saskatchewan President’s Office Non-Fiction Book Award.

Three books by faculty or alumni are also shortlisted in publishing categories.

Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage from University of Regina Press is shortlisted for the SaskBooks Publishing in Education Award and the Saskatoon Public Library Indigenous Peoples’ Publishing Award. Performing Turtle Island is coedited by Dr. Moira Day (PhD), faculty member and head of the Department of Drama, together with Jesse Rae Archibald-Barber and Kathleen Irwin.

No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous from University of Regina Press is nominated for the Saskatoon Public Library Indigenous Peoples’ Publishing Award. Sheldon Krasowski (BA’95) is the book’s author.

Adam’s Tree from Radiant Press, written by Gloria Mehlmann (BA’69) is in the running for the Saskatoon Public Library Indigenous Peoples’ Publishing Award.

The Saskatchewan Book Awards are Saskatchewan’s only provincially focused book awards program. The 2020 nominees were announced on Feb. 16.