The Whistler Writing Society and self-publishing company Vivalolgue have announced the nominees for the first Whistler Independent Book Awards, recognizing Canadian self-published authors writing in four categories.

The shortlists will be selected by members of the Canadian Authors Association, with the winners chosen by a Canadian author relative to each category – Genni Gunn for fiction, J.J. Lee for non-fiction, Linda L. Richards for crime, and Evelyn Lau for poetry – alongside with an appointee of the Whistler Writing Society.

Feedback letters with constructive criticism were sent to all authors who submitted. The winners, who will receive a prize of $500 each, and finalists, who will receive $250, will be revealed at the Literary Cabaret Gala held at Whistler Writers’ Fest on Oct. 14.

The nominees are:

Fiction

• Mark Alexander, Danny, What Are You Doing?
• Bryna Barclay, The House of the White Elephant
• Donna Barker, Mother Theresa’s Advice for Jilted Lovers
• Ev Bishop, Bigger Things
• Mark Cameron, Goodnight Sunshine
• Curran, Kath, Before It Was Easy
• Ron Duffy, Crossed Lives
• Shawn Gale, The Stories That Make Us
• Laurel Hislop, Chitchat
• Caroline Shepard, Unlit Spaces

Non-fiction

• Pamela Roy Bendall, What Was I Thinking? Adventures of a Woman Sailing Solo
• Miji Campbell, Separation Anxiety: A Coming-of-Middle-Age Story
• Graham Clews, The Sound of Silence
• Leslie Hill, Dressed for Dancing: My Sojourn in the Findhorn Foundation
• Monique Layton, The New Arcadia: Tahiti’s Cursed Myth
• Bretton Loney, Rebel with a Cause: The Doc Nikaido Story
• Dawn Service, The Cabin: A Misanthropic Journal
• Oriole Veldhuis, For Elise: Unveiling the Forgotten Woman on the Criddle Homestead
• Megan Williams, Our Interrupted Fairytale
• Maggie Ziegler, The Road to Keringet

Crime fiction

• D.F. Bailey, Bone Maker
• T.G. Brown, O’Henry
• Ruth Donald, Sundown on Top of the World
• Gerry Fostaty, Stage Business
• S.G. Wong, In for a Pound
• Alan Woodland, Out of the Mist

Poetry

• Gloria Barclay, Water Window Mirror
• Connie Braun, Unspoken: An Inheritance of Words
• Rosalind Knight,  Songs of Zambia