The shortlist for the 2015 ReLit Awards, recognizing the best novels and poetry and short fiction collections released by independent Canadian publishers in a given year, was released on New Year’s Eve.
Novel
- Nelly Arcan; David Homel and Jacob Homel, trans., Hysteric (Anvil Press)
- Jackie Bateman, Savour (Anvil)
- Elizabeth Copeland, Jazz (Quattro Books)
- Jesse Gilmour, The Green Hotel (Quattro)
- Beth Goobie, The First Principles of Dreaming (Second Story Press)
- Darren Greer, Just Beneath My Skin (Cormorant Books)
- Andrew Kaufman, The Tiny Wife (Cormorant)
- Bertrand Laerdure, Universal Bureau of Copyrights (BookThug)
- Lee Maracle, Celia’s Song (Cormorant)
- Wendy McGrath, North East (NeWest Press)
- Christine Miscione, Carafola (Mansfield Press)
- Guillaume Morissette, New Tab (Véhicule Press)
- Alisha Piercy, Bunny and Shark (BookThug)
- Ursula Pflug; S.K. Dyment, illus., Motion Sickness (Inanna Publications)
- Lisa Pike, My Grandmother’s Pill (Guernica Editions)
- Ken Rivard, Motherwild (Thistledown Press)
- Chelsea Rooney, Pedal (Caitlin Press)
- Margaret Sweatman, Mr. Jones (Goose Lane Publications)
- Wayne Tefs, Barker (Turnstone Press)
- Russell Wangersky, Walt (House of Anansi Press)
- Jacob Wren, Polyamorous Love Song (BookThug)
Poetry
- Ken Babstock, On Malice (Coach House Books)
- Dani Couture, Yaw (Mansfield)
- Jen Currin, School (Coach House)
- Frank Davey, Poems Suited to Current Material Conditions (Mansfield)
- Brecken Hancock, Broom Broom (Coach House)
- Aisha Sasha John, Thou (BookThug)
- Michael Lista, The Scarborough (Signal Editions/Véhicule)
- Susan Paddon, Two Tragedies in 429 Breaths (Brick Books)
- Stan Rogel, After Words (Guernica)
- Rolli, Mavor’s Bones (8th House Publishing)
- Sina Queyras, M x T (Coach House)
- Jeffrey Round, In the Museum of Leonardo Da Vinci (Tightrope Books)
- Blair Trewartha, Easy Fix (Palimpsest Press)
- Peter Unwin, When We Were Old (Cormorant)
- Sheri-D Wilson, Against Women (Frontenac House Press)
- Deanna Young, House Dreams (Brick)
Short fiction
- Greg Bechtel, Boundary Problems (Freehand Books)
- Kate Cayley, How You Were Born (Pedlar Press)
- Megan Gail Coles, Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome (Killick Press)
- Jon Paul Fiorentino, I’m Not Scared of You or Anything (Anvil)
- Sean Johnston, We Don’t Listen to Them (Thistledown)
- Doretta Lau, How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? (Nightwood Editions)
- Helen Marshall, Gifts for the One Who Comes After (ChiZine Publications)
- Elaine McCluskey, Hello, Sweetheart (Enfield & Wizenty)
- George McWhirter, The Gift of Women (Exile Editions)
- Kathy Page, Paradise & Elsewhere (Biblioasis)
- Marguerite Pigeon, Some Extremely Boring Drives (NeWest)
- Matt Rader, What I Want to Tell Goes Like This (Nightwood)
- Rolli, I Am Currently Working on a Novel (Tightrope)
- Diane Schoemperlen, By the Book: Stories and Pictures (Biblioasis)
- Shawn Syms, Nothing Looks Familiar (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Winners of this year’s ReLit Rings will be announced in January.