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Paul Seesequasis leads 2020 Sask. Book Awards nominations

There are 36 books shortlisted in 13 categories.

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Paul Seesequasis’s mother planted the seed for his 2019 book, Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun, a portrait of eight Indigenous communities through archival photographs.

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A residential school survivor, Mary Seesequasis was “’tired of hearing just negative things about those times’ and that ‘there had been positive and strong things in Indigenous communities then,’” Paul wrote in his book’s introduction.

Her comments prompted him to explore archives for “images reflecting a different reality, that of integrity, strength, resourcefulness, hard work, family and play. And I found them.”

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Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun leads the nominations for the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards, which will be given in Regina on April 25. It is shortlisted in four categories — Book of the Year, Saskatoon Award, Non-Fiction Award, and Indigenous Peoples’ Writing Award.

There are 36 books shortlisted in 13 categories.

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“The shortlist represents Saskatchewan books that are remarkable for its diverse voices, compelling narrative, and exquisite writing,” said executive director Kam Teo, who joined the Sask. Book Awards in October from Weyburn, where he was a librarian.

Leading the nominations are Paul Seesequasis, Candace Savage, Ida Tremblay and Miriam Korner, Jason Heit, and Harold Johnson.
Leading the nominations are Paul Seesequasis, Candace Savage, Ida Tremblay and Miriam Korner, Jason Heit, and Harold Johnson. jpg

Jason Heit’s book, Kaidenberg’s Best Sons: A Novel in Stories, is shortlisted for three awards, including the First Book Award. Set in the early 1900s, it’s described as “an unvarnished view of the lives of settlers in the early days of immigration to the Canadian prairies.”

Previous winners Candace Savage and Harold Johnson each have three nominations, including Book of the Year and Non-Fiction Award.

Savage’s non-fiction book, Strangers In The House: A Prairie Story of Bigotry and Belonging, is her investigation into the family that first owned Savage’s Saskatoon home.

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Johnson’s book, Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada, is his “condemnation” of Canada’s justice system, which he was inspired to write after the deaths of Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine.

Ida Tremblay and Miriam Korner’s book, When We Had Sled Dogs, is also nominated in three categories. A children’s book inspired by Tremblay’s memories of childhood, it’s a story of the seasonal cycle of trapline, told in English and Woodland Cree.

The Saskatchewan Book Awards ceremony will be hosted by Regina theatre artist Kris Alvarez on Saturday, April 25, at the Conexus Arts Centre. For tickets, visit bookawards.sk.ca.

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Here’s the complete list of nominees.

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The shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards were unveiled on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, at the Regina Public Library Central Branch.
The shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards were unveiled on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, at the Regina Public Library Central Branch. Photo by TROY FLEECE /Regina Leader-Post

Awards for Writers

— Regina Public Library Book of the Year Award —

Strangers in the House by Candace Savage (Greystone Books)

Voice: On Writing With Deafness by Adam Pottle (University of Regina Press)

Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun by Paul Seesequasis (Penguin Random House Canada)

Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson (Penguin Random House Canada)

Birds of Saskatchewan ed Alan R. Smith, C. Stuart Houston, and J. Frank Roy, eds (Nature Saskatchewan)

— G. Murray & Edna Forbes Foundation Children’s Award —

Critters: Under Dark by Allan Dotson (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)

The Underdog Duckling by Sally Meadows (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)

When We Had Sled Dogs by Ida Tremblay and Miriam Korner (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)

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Junior Paranormal Investigators by Michael James (Hollow Hills, LLC)

The Absence of Sparrows by Kurt Kirchmeier (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

— Saskatoon Public Library Saskatoon Award —

Kaidenberg’s Best Sons by Jason Heit (Coteau Books)

Voices by Adam Pottle (University of Regina Press)

At the Wolf’s Door by Chaz Osburn (Hellgate Press)

Blanket Toss Under the Midnight Sun by Paul Seesequasis (Penguin Random House Canada)

Strangers in the House by Candace Savage (Greystone Books)

The shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards were unveiled on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, at the Regina Public Library Central Branch. Sask. Book Awards executive director is Kam Teo speaks at the event.
The shortlisted nominees for the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Awards were unveiled on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, at the Regina Public Library Central Branch. Sask. Book Awards executive director is Kam Teo speaks at the event. Photo by TROY FLEECE /Regina Leader-Post

— Non-Fiction Book Award —

Blanket Toss Under the Midnight Sun by Paul Seesaquasis (Penguin Random House Canada)

Vassily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff (Yale University Press)

Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson (Penguin Random House Canada)

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Strangers in the House by Candace Savage (Greystone Books)

Birds of Saskatchewan ed. Alan R. Smith, C. Stuart Houston, and Frank J Roy (Nature Saskatchewan)

— Poetry Award —

Phases by Belinda Betker (Coteau Books)

This Hole Called January by Paula Jane Reminger (Thistledown Press)

Dry Valley by Bernadette Wagner (Radiant Press)

University of Regina Faculty of Arts/University of Saskatchewan College of Arts & Science Jennifer Welsh Scholarly Writing Award

Vassily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff (Yale University Press)

Back to Blakeney by David McGrane ed., et al. (University of Regina Press)

Imagining Child Welfare in the Spirit of Reconciliation by H. Montgomery, ed. (University of Regina Press)

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— Rasmussen & Co. Indigenous Peoples’ Writing Award —

Bone Black by Carol Rose GoldenEagle (Nightwood Editions)

Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson (Penguin Random House Canada)

Blanket Toss Under The Midnight Sun by Paul Seesaquasis (Penguin Random House Canada)

Wolf Woman: A Search for Identity by Beatrice (Wolfe) Wallace (DefendDignity)

Surviving Domestic Violence by Kendra Weenie (Self-Published)

— Muslims for Peace and Justice Fiction Award —

Bone Black by Carol Rose GoldenEagle (
Nightwood Editions)

At the WoIf’s Door by Chaz Osburn (
Hellgate Press)

Kaidenberg’s Best Sons by Jason Heit (
Coteau Books)

“Master of the World (Worldshapers: Book Two) by Edward Willett (DAW)

— Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport First Book Award —

Five Red Sentries by Raye Hendrickson (Thistledown Press}

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Kaidenberg’s Best Sons by Jason Heit (Coteau Books)

Naked Dreams by Gerard Makuch (aka Edgar Roland King) (Self-Published)

Up from Garlic Flats by Victor Cicansky (Radiant Press)

The Absence of Sparrows by Kurt Kirchmeier (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

— City of Regina Book Award —

Critters Underdark by Allan Dotson (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)

Wide Open: A Searing Memoir of Sexual Assault and Recovery – D.M. Ditson (Coteau Books)

Five Red Sentries by Raye Hendrickson (Thistledown Press)

A Walk in Wascana by Stephanie Vance (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)

Publishing Awards

— SaskBooks Publishing in Education Award —

Frenemy Nations by Mary Soderstrom (University of Regina Press)

Performing Turtle Island: Indigenous Theatre on the World Stage, edited by Jesse Rae Archibald- Barber, Kathleen Irwin, and Moira J. Day (University of Regina Press)

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When We Had Sled Dogs, as told by Acimowin Ohci Wanihikiskanahk, by Ida Tremblay and Miriam Korner (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing)

Imagining Child Welfare in the Spirit of Reconciliation: Voices from the Prairies, edited by Dorothy Badry, H. Monty Montgomery. Daniel Kikulwe, Marilyn Bennett and Don Fuchs

Lac Pelletier: My Metis Home, by Cecile Blanke (nee LaRoque) (Gabriel Dumont Institute)

— Creative Saskatchewan Publishing Award —

In My Own Moccasins by Helen Knott (University of Regina Press)

Phases by Belinda Betker (Coteau Books)

Black Writers Matter edited by Whitney French (University of Regina Press)

Angry Queer Somali Boy by Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali (University of Regina Press)

When We Had Sled Dogs by Ida Tremblay and Miriam Korner (Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing )

— Saskatoon Public Library Indigenous Peoples’ Publishing Award —

The Voyageurs: Forefathers of the Metis Nation by Zoey Roy (Gabriel Dumont Institute Press)

Performing Turtle Island edited by Jesse Archibald (University of Regina Press)

In My Own Moccasins by Helen Knott (University of Regina Press)

No Surrender: The Land Remains Indigenous by Sheldon Krasowski (University of Regina Press)

Adam’s Tree by Gloria Mehlmann (Radiant Press)

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