Ottawa Book Awards

WINNER

Nuclear Family

by Jean Van Loon
McGill-Queen's University Press

Jean Van Loon’s father was a metallurgist in an Ottawa lab that contributed to the Manhattan Project. Unbeknownst even to the family, her mother worked for Canada’s Cold War intelligence service. Rooted in memory and history, Nuclear Family carries the reader into the sense of impending nuclear doom and the material wealth that shaped the poet’s childhood.

Jean Van Loon is an Ottawa-based writer of fiction and poetry, whose first poetry collection, Building on River, was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award.
 

Jury Statement for Nuclear Family:  

Jean Van Loon shapes a poem with scientific precision. This cohesive collection explores the half-life of familial love set against the unimagined consequences of our species’ nuclear achievements.  Heart-rending and thought-provoking, Nuclear Family asks us all what we can learn from the wrong end of time.  

Suzanna Hall, Her Book

by Jennifer Falkner
Fish Gotta Swim Editions

Susanna Hall, Her Book is set over three days in the height of the English Civil War, during which the Queen of England seeks shelter in the house of Shakespeare's eldest daughter.

Jennifer Falkner (she/her) is a fiction writer living in Ottawa, Canada, on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe First Nation.

lisan al’asfour

by Natalie Hanna
Arbeiter Ring Publishing

Beginning, and ending, with moving invocations for acceptance, lisan al’asfour (bird’s tongue), introduces a personal concept of creation around loss, confirming identity, and matrilineal questions of the child of a single mother forced to immigrate to Canada from Egypt in the 1970s. These poems speak to coming back into softness and strength despite the sorrow and pressure of trauma.

Natalie Hanna is a queer Ottawa lawyer of Middle-Eastern descent, working with low-income populations. Her writing focuses on feminist, political, and personal relational themes. She previously served as Administrative Director of the Sawdust Reading Series (Ottawa) and board member of Arc Poetry Magazine. She runs battleaxe press in Ottawa.

The Embroidered Book

by Kate Heartfield
HarperCollins

1768. Charlotte, daughter of the Habsburg Empress, arrives in Naples to marry a man she has never met. Her sister Antoine is sent to France, and in the mirrored corridors of Versailles they rename her Marie Antoinette.The sisters are alone, but not powerless. When they were children, they discovered a book of spells, with dark and unpredictable consequences.

Kate Heartfield is the author of the historical fantasy novel The Embroidered Book. Her novels, novellas, stories and games have won or been shortlisted for multiple awards. Kate is the former opinion editor of The Ottawa Citizen. Her next novel is The Valkyrie, coming in mid-2023.

Fearnoch

by Jim McEwen
Breakwater Books Ltd

Welcome to Fearnoch, an undistinguished Ottawa Valley farming hamlet in its twilight. The deterioration of the once fruitful way of life in this small town is explored through the lives and trajectories of its inhabitants.

Jim McEwen is an award-winning writer born and raised in Dunrobin, ON. A graduate of Memorial University’s Creative Writing Master’s program, he has published work in Riddle Fence and the Telegram.

WINNER

Capharnaüm

by Nancy Vickers
Éditions David

Elsa is a compulsive collector with a passion for spiders. From childhood until her death, she accumulates all kinds of found, bought or even custom-made objects, which end up cluttering her house to the point where it becomes unhealthy. Her mania damages all her personal relationships and leads her to the worst insanities.

Born in Saguenay in 1946, Nancy Vickers lived in Ottawa for 40 years. Her novels, short stories and tales are written for young people and adults. In addition to her fourteen award-winning books, she has contributed to several magazines and collective works.

Jury Statement for Capharnaüm:  

There’s an old Arab proverb to the effect that entering a hammam is not the same as leaving it. The aphorism applies perfectly to Capharnaüm, as its pages are delightfully crammed with sparkling and flowing prose, supported by a myriad of characters, most of them women, each as unique as the next. And for good reason, since the novel deals with the sordid world of hoarding disorder, an obsession that consists in accumulating objects and/or animals because they cannot disappoint or hurt us. In short, Capharnaüm is a powerful book that stays with you long after you’ve finished reading it. 

dire

by Andrée Lacelle
Éditions Prise de parole

In this three-part poetry collection, Andrée Lacelle reflects on 40 years of writing practice, opening a window on the workshop where her unprecedented works were crafted. This collection, a prolific exploration of memory, highlights the poet’s career and helps appreciate both her discipline and liberality.

Born in Hawkesbury, Andrée Lacelle has published a dozen poetry collections. She is the recipient of the French-Language Trillium Book Award, the first French Language Poet Laureate of the City of Ottawa, and the first French language Inductee into the Ottawa International Poetry Festival Hall of Fame.

Circé des hirondelles

by Gilles Lacombe
Les Éditions L’Interligne

Circé des hirondelles hinges on the relationship between two characters: the “we” (the “on” in hirondelles) who constructs a portrait of the “she” (the “elle” in hirondelles), a feminine identity, an allegorical figure of life itself, embodying fragility, beauty, death, nature, poetry and language.

Born in Ottawa in 1946, Gilles Lacombe is a poet and visual artist. Circé des hirondelles is his twelfth book published by Les Éditions L'Interligne.

Les voies du slam

by Claudia Lahaie
Les Éditions David

Les voies du slam portrays three young people from different backgrounds, who are invited in turn to take part in an international slam contest with a final in Paris. This moving novel is inspired by current hot topics: mental health, systemic racism, police violence, homosexuality and bullying.

Claudia Lahaie spent several years living around the world, in New York, London, Singapore and Cameroon. Her community work is mostly focused on inclusion. Her passion for working with teenagers inspired her first novel, Les voies du slam.

Feux du naufrage

by Gilles Latour
Les Éditions L’Interligne

Feux du naufrage is a poet’s ravenous hunt and endless pursuit, with a disquieting, poignant and visionary authenticity: the reader is witness to the origins of an intuitive apprehension that unfolds in spiralling phrasing.

Born in Cornwall, Gilles Latour was raised in Ottawa, studied literature in Montreal, and travelled the world working for humanitarian organizations for a living—yet, wherever he goes, his main trade is poetry. He lives in Ottawa, where five of his collections have been published by Les Éditions L’Interligne.

WINNER

Lifesavers and Body Snatchers: Medical Care and the Struggle for Survival in the Great War

by Tim Cook
Penguin Random House Canada

From Canada’s top war historian, a definitive medical history of the Great War, illuminating how the carnage of modern battle gave birth to revolutionary life-saving innovations. It reveals shocking revelations of the ways brutality of combat and the necessity of agonizing battlefield decisions created unimaginable strain for men and women of medicine who fought to save the lives of soldiers.

Tim Cook is Chief Historian and Director of Research at the Canadian War Museum. His bestselling books have won multiple awards, including three Ottawa Book prizes for Literary Non-Fiction and two C.P. Stacey Awards for the best book in Canadian military history.

 Jury Statement for: Lifesavers and Body Snatchers: Medical Care and the Struggle for Survival in the Great War

Tim Cook’s writing in Lifesavers and Body Snatchers is consistently vivid, evoking now horror, now pity, now admiration for the sacrifices made by the soldiers and the medical corps of men and women that supported them behind the lines. This history of the Great War is not only a story of sacrifice and carnage but also one of innovation, both in the technology of warfare and the medical technology that supported it and responded to the havoc war wreaked on human bodies. Above all, it is a human story, brought alive for the reader by the author’s judicious use of eye-witness accounts by everyone from military and medical officers to combatants, nurses, and stretcher-bearers.

Big Men Fear Me

by Mark Bourrie
Biblioasis

In Big Men Fear Me, award-winning historian Mark Bourrie tells the remarkable story of media mogul George McCullagh’s inspirational rise and devastating fall, and with it sheds new light on the resurgence of populist politics, challenges to collective action, and attacks on the free press that characterize our own tumultuous era.

Mark Bourrie is an author, lawyer, and former journalist. He holds a master’s in Journalism from Carleton University and a PhD in History from the University of Ottawa. He has won numerous awards for his journalism, and received the RBC Charles Taylor Prize in 2020 for his book Bush Runner.

Hanged in Medicine Hat: Murders in a Nazi Prisoner-of-War Camp, and the Disturbing True Story of Canada's Last Mass Execution

by Nathan Greenfield
Sutherland House Books

For three years during the Second World War, 12,000 Nazis were held in a POW camp at the edge of Medicine Hat. The camp and the townsfolk lived cheerfully side-by-side until two men were beaten and hanged by their fellow prisoners and no one on the scene would admit to knowing anything about the crimes.

Nathan Greenfield was born and raised in Brooklyn. His expertise in Canadian POW escapers and evaders in WWII resulted in the writing of a history of escape and evasion for the professional development centre (CANSOFCOM). Nathan is the North American correspondent for the University World News.

The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future

by Stephen Poloz
Penguin Random House Canada

From the former Governor of the Bank of Canada, a far-seeing guide to the powerful economic forces that will shape the decades ahead. Containing takeaways for employers, investors, and policymakers, as well as families discussing jobs and mortgage renewals around the kitchen table, this book is an indispensable guide for those navigating the fault lines of the risky world ahead.

Stephen Poloz is one of the world’s foremost economists with over 40 years of experience in economic and investment research, forecasting, banking, and policymaking, including seven years as Governor of the Bank of Canada. A sought-after speaker for business and investor audiences, he is also quoted frequently in the media.

It Should Be Easy to Fix

by Bonnie Robichaud
Between the Lines

This timely and revelatory memoir follows Bonnie Robichaud's gruelling eleven-year fight for justice, which was won in the Supreme Court of Canada. The unanimous decision set a historic legal precedent that employers are responsible for maintaining a respectful and harassment-free workplace. Robichaud’s story is a landmark piece of Canadian labour history—one that is more relevant today than ever.

Bonnie Robichaud is a union activist, public speaker, mentor, and recognized pioneer and leader in the fight for human rights. Her work specializes in cases of sexual harassment. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

WINNER

La tête haute

by Maurice Henrie
Les Presses de l’Université d’Ottawa

This book features 24 non-fiction texts covering a variety of unrelated subjects. It mainly addresses politics, war, demography, philosophy and religion. Dominant themes include words, death and the place reserved by society for literature and its practitioners.

Born in Ontario, Maurice Henrie studied and taught at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University. He earned a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Literature from the University of Ottawa. He has also worked for several federal departments and agencies.

Jury Statement for: La tête haute

This collection of essays draws on the very origins of the genre since its founder Michel de Montaigne, through the diversity of the topics covered, the often amused and playful tone akin to a conversation among friends, the stylistic fluidity and absence of pedantry or jargon, and lastly, the admission of personal limitations. This book is both original and deeply rooted in a vertical view of culture, seeking to explain the present through the past and to envision the future at humanity’s level.

Faux rebelles : les dérives du « politiquement incorrect »

by Philippe Bernier Arcand
Poètes de brousse

An increasing number of people are adopting conservative values and identifying themselves with the resistance, defying the establishment and the media. Historically associated with progressive values, the rebel character, through questionable arguments, seemingly changed sides. What could explain this paradigm shift?

Philippe Bernier Arcand is an essayist and part-time professor at Saint Paul University. He is also a columnist with L’Acadie Nouvelle.

Décoder le lecteur : la littérature franco-canadienne et ses publics

by Ariane Brun del Re
Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal

Who is the French Canadian literature audience? Which audiences does it seek to engage with or exclude? What are its writing strategies? This book explores these questions by studying the reader in the context of six literary works from Acadia, French Ontario and French Manitoba. It demonstrates how the nature of the readership is central to minority literature.

Ariane Brun del Re is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Montreal and the Okanagan Campus of the University of British Columbia. Supported by the prestigious Banting Fellowship, she is pursuing her research on Francophone Canadian literature. She is originally from Ottawa, where she lives with her partner and their two children.

Lettre à Tahar Ben Jelloun

by Janine Messadié
Les Éditions L’Interligne

Moved by the mystical resonance of the novel Cette aveuglante absence de lumière by French Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, which depicts the horrors of the Tazmamart convict colony, Janine Messadié delivers an epistolary account of a rare intensity, focusing on the beauty of the world and its inhumanity.

Impassioned by the world of books and writing, Janine Messadié has conducted several interviews with local and international authors over the course of her career at Radio-Canada and TV5, and continues hosting various book events. Her first literary work reflects her love for words and poetry.

Le livre Uber

by Brigitte Pellerin
Les Éditions L’Interligne

We all know what it is like to take an Uber vehicle, but very few know about the other end of the transaction. For over a year, Brigitte Pellerin worked as an Uber driver; what she learned is very telling of our society.

Brigitte Pellerin is a writer, author and photographer and has been working as a journalist, in English and French, for almost 25 years.