Winners of the 2013 Doug Wright Awards were announded on May 12th as part of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival. The awards honour the legacy of the fantastic Canadian cartoonist Doug Wright and recognize the best in English-language comics and graphic novels published in the past year.

Congratulations to:

Michel Rabagliati for winning Best Book for The Song of Roland, published by Conundrum Press

Nina Bunjevac for winning the Spotlight Award for Heartless, published by Conundrum Press

The Canadian Booksellers Association recently announced the shortlists for this year's Libris Awards. The Libris Awards are voted on by members of the Canadian book industry and are meant to honour the talent and books that were enjoyed by book buyers and sellers over the past year.

Congratulations to Coach House Books for their nomination in the Small Press category.

The winners will be announced at an awards dinner in Toronto on June 3rd. To view a complete list of the nominees, please visit the CBA website.

Congratulations to Sarah de Leeuw and NeWest Press! Geographies of a Lover was awarded the 2013 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, as part of the BC Book Prizes, on May 4th in Victoria.

The award is supported by the BC Teachers' Federation and this year's judges were Larissa Lai, Susan Musgrave, and John Pass. To view a full list of all the 2013 BC Book Prizes winners, please visit bcbookprizes.ca.

The Saskatchewan Book Awards group recently announced the winners of the 2013 -- and 20th anniversary -- winners!

Congratulations to our member publishers and their authors:

While the Sun is Above Us by Melanie Schnell, published by Freehand Books, won the National Bank Financial Wealth Management First Book Award and the Drs. Morris & Jacqui Shumiatcher Regina Book Award

The Pious Robber by Harriet Richards, published by Thistledown Press, won the SaskPower Fiction Award

The Believer magazine announced the shortlist for their 2012 Book Award in their March/April issue and Maidenhead by Tamara Faith Berger (Coach House Books, 2012) made the cut! The Believer Book Award is given by the editors of Believer magazine to the novel or short story collection that they felt was the strongest and most underappreciated for that year.

Maidenhead deals with the sexual awakening of its teenage protagonist and the editors of Believer said that "Berger handles it all with great sensitivity, and without prudery or fear."

The winner will be announced in their next issue.

The Manitoba Writers' Guild, with the help of the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, recently announced the winners of the 2013 Manitoba Book Awards at a gala event on April 28th in Winnipeg.

Congratulations to our member publishers and their authors who came away winners:

The Politics of Knives by Jonathan Ball, published by Coach House Books, won the Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry

Sonar by Kristian Enright, published by Turnstone Press, won the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book

Thunder Road by Chadwick Ginther, published by Turnstone Press, won the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher

To view a full list of the winners, visit the Manitoba Writers' Guild website.

The Leacock Associates awarded Cassie Stocks the 2013 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for humour writing on April 25th for her first novel, Dance, Gladys, Dance, published by LPG member NeWest Press.

In Dance, Gladys, Dance, Cassie Stocks tells the uplifting story of a woman whose uncanny connection with a kindred spirit causes her to see her life in a new way—as anything but ordinary

Cassie and Dance, Gladys, Dance will be celebrated at the Leacock annual gala dinner on June 8th in Orillia. Visit the Leacock Associates website for more information.

Malarky, written by Anakana Schofield and published by LPG member Biblioasis, was awarded the Amazon.ca First Novel Award on April 24th at an awards ceremony hosted by Jian Ghomeshi in Toronto.

Malarky is the story of an Irish mother forced to look grief in the eye, and of a wife come face-to-face with the mad agony of longing. Comic, moving, eccentric, and spare, Anakana Schofield's debut novel introduces a brilliant new voice to contemporary fiction.

The City of Calgary recently released the shortlist for the 2013 W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. The prize annually recognizes the literary acheivement of Calgary authors. Last year's award was given to Suzette Mayr for her novel Monoceros, published by LPG member Coach House Books.

Congratulations to this year's nominees, which include two LPG publishers:

NeWest Press for Swallow, written by Theanna Bischoff

Goose Lane Editions for Walls: Travels Along the Barricades, written by Marcello di Cintio

The Writers Guild of Alberta recently revealed the nominees for this year's Alberta Literary Awards. The awards celebrate greatness in literary work from Alberta writers and publishers over the past year.

Congratulations to the following LPG members:

Goose Lane Editions for Walls: Travels Along the Barricades by Marcello Di Cintio for the Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction

Brick Books for I See My Love More Clearly from a Distance by Nora Gould for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry

Nightwood Editions for Undark: An Oratorio by Sandy Pool for the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry