The Book Publishers Association of Alberta has released the shortlists for its annual Book Publishing Awards‚ recognizing work by the province’s publishers. The awards will be presented at a gala at Calgary’s Hotel Arts on Sept. 16.

Jurors selected the following shortlists from 77 entries:

Book design

• NeWest Press for A Revision of Forward  by Wendy McGrath‚ designed by Natalie Olsen
• NeWest Press for Entropic by R.W. Gray‚ designed by Natalie Olsen
• Freehand Books for The Swallows Uncaged by Elizabeth McLean‚ designed by Natalie Olsen

Cover design

• NeWest Press for Meadowlark by Wendi Stewart‚ designed by Michel Vrana
• Frontenac House for Niche by Basma Kavanagh‚ designed by Neil Petrunia
• NeWest Press for Things You’ve Inherited from Your Mother by Hollie Adams‚ designed by Vikki Wierczinski

Book of the year – BFYP/YA

• Tyche Books for Flashback by Simon Rose
• Renegade Arts Entertainment for Jacqueline the Singing Crow by Mandi Kujawa
• Renegade Arts Entertainment for The Loxley’s and Confederation by Mark Zuehlke‚ Nigaanwewidam Sinclair‚  and Alexander Finbow
• Tyche Books for Maddie Hatter and the Deadly Diamond by Jayne Barnard

Book of the year – trade fiction

• Freehand Books for The Afterlife of Birds by Elizabeth Philips
• NeWest Press for Meadowlark by Wendi Stewart
• Freehand Books for The Mystics of Mile End by Sigal Samuel
• Freehand Books for Welcome to the Circus by Rhonda Douglas

Book of the year – trade non-fiction

• Frontenac House for First Person Plural by George Melnyk
• NeWest Press for Memory Serves: Oratories by Lee Maracle
• University of Alberta Press for Why Grow Here: Essays on Edmonton’s Gardening History by Kathryn Chase Merrett

Book of the year – Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry

• NeWest Press for Hillsdale Book by Gerald Hill
• Frontenac House for Niche be Basma Kavanagh
• University of Alberta Press for Standard Candles by Alice Major

Book of the year – Scholarly and academic

• University of Alberta Press for Magazines‚ Travel‚  and Middlebrow Culture by Faye Hammill and Michelle Smith
• University of Alberta Press for Street Sex Work and Canadian Cities by Shawna Ferris
• Banff Centre Press for Toward.Some.Air edited by Fred Wah and Amy De’Ath
• Athabasca University Press for We Are Coming Home edited by Gerald T. Conaty

Book of the year – speculative fiction

• Hades/EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy for nEvermore! Tales of Murder‚ Mystery‚ and the Macabre by Nancy Kilpatrick and Caro Soles
• Hades/EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy for The Occasional Diamond Thief by J.A. McLachlan
• Hades/EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy for Wrestling With Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen) by Liana Kerzner and Jerome Stueart

Publisher of the year

• Athabasca University Press
• Freehand Books

Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence

• Athabasca University Press for Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada edited by Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick
• University of Alberta Press for The Little Third Reich on Lake Superior: A History of Canadian Internment Camp R by Ernest Robert Zimmermann and edited by Michel S. Beaulieu and David K. Ratz