The Writers’ Guild of Alberta has announced the shortlist for their 2015 Alberta Literary Awards. The awards recognize and celebrate authors from the province.

The jury read more than 150 submissions and chose 24  finalists in eight categories:

R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature (Supported by UTA Youth Foundation Fund at the Calgary Foundation)

• Victor Lethbridge, You’re Just Right (Tatanka Books)
• Leanne Shirtliffe, The Change Your Name Store (Sky Pony Press)
• Richard Van Camp, Little You (Orca Book Publishers)

James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction (Supported by Tony Johnson)

• Susan Hagan, “Manuals on Being Woman,” WestWord
• Bobbi Junior, “Tell Me about Today,” Telling Truths: Storying Motherhood
• Chris Turner, “Owen’s Ark,” The Walrus 

Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story (Supported by Vanna Tessier and Guy Tessier)

• Katie Bickell, “But For the Streetlamps and the Moon and All the Stars,” Tahoma Literary Review
• Lee Kvern, “High Ground,” 7 Ways to Sunday (Enfield & Wizentry)
• Sheryl Normandeau, “Early Retirement,” Pages of Stories, Inc. 

Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry (Sponsored by Stephan Benediktson)

• Tim Bowling, Circa Nineteen Hundred and Grief (Gaspereau Press)
• Sarah Lang, For Tamara (House of Anansi Press)
• Sharanpal Ruprai, Seva (Frontenac House) 

Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award

• Ali Bryan, “Mints after the Meal”
• Jennifer Delisle, “Micrographia”
• Kim McCullough, “Tributaries”

Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama (Sponsored by Alberta Views)

• Cheryl Foggo, John Ware Reimagined
• Conni Massing, The Invention of Romance
• David van Belle, Liberation Days

Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction (Supported in Memory of Ed Marshall)

• Ted Bishop, The Social Life of Ink: Culture, Wonder, and Our Relationship with the Written Word (Viking Canada)
• Lynette Loeppky, Cease: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Desire (Oolichan Books)
• Chris Turner, How to Breathe Underwater: Field Reports from an Age of Radical Change (Biblioasis) 

Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction (Sponsored by the Banff Centre)

• Wendy McGrath, North East (NeWest Press)
• Fred Stenson, Who by Fire (Doubleday Canada)
• Rudy Wiebe, Come Back (Knopf Canada)

The winners will be announced at the Alberta Literary Awards Gala in Edmonton on May 23, 2015 .