Ottawa - The City of Ottawa today announced an impressive list of finalists for the 2012 Ottawa Book Awards and Prix du livre d’Ottawa. Fifteen prominent local authors are contenders for the prestigious awards, which pay tribute to Ottawa’s thriving literary community.

The awards recognize the top English and French books published by local authors in the previous year in the categories of fiction and non-fiction. Three winners will be announced during the 2012 awards ceremony, which will be held on Wednesday, October 24 at Shenkman Arts Centre. Each winner will receive a $7,500 prize. Finalists will each receive $1,000. According to the award guidelines, there were not enough qualifying entries in the category of French non-fiction this year.

Past winners of the Ottawa Book Awards include: Elizabeth Hay, Roy MacGregor, Brian Doyle, Frances Itani, and Alan Cumyn. Past winners of the Prix du livre d’Ottawa include: Daniel Poliquin, Margaret Michèle Cook, and Maurice Henrie.

Descriptions of the short-listed books and author biographies are available online at ottawabookawards.ca.

2012 Ottawa Book Award Finalists

English Non-fiction

• Damien-Claude Bélanger Prejudice and Pride: Canadian Intellectuals Confront the United States, 1891-1945 (University of Toronto Press)
• Murray Brewster The Savage War: The Untold Battles of Afghanistan (John Wiley & Sons Canada)
• Robert R. Fowler A Season in Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Craig Oliver Oliver's Twist: The Life and Times of an Unapologetic Newshound (Viking Canada)
• Ruth B. Phillips Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums (McGill-Queen's University Press)

English Fiction

• Alan Cumyn Tilt (Groundwood Books)
• Jamieson Findlay The Summer of Permanent Wants (Doubleday Canada)
• Elizabeth Hay Alone in the Classroom (McClelland & Stewart)
• Frances Itani REQUIEM (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Shane Rhodes Err (Nightwood Editions)

French Fiction (Prix du livre d’Ottawa)

• Estelle Beauchamp Un souffle venu de loin (Éditions Prise de Parole)
• Andrée Christensen La mémoire de l'aile (Les Éditions David)
• Maurice Henrie L'EnfanCement (Éditions Prise de Parole)
• Alain Bernard Marchand Jours inouïs (Les Herbes Rouges)
• Monia Mazigh Miroirs et mirages (Les Éditions L'Interligne)

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