The Manitoba Writers’ Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers have revealed the shortlists for this year’s Manitoba Book Awards. The winners will be announced at a free public gala in Winnipeg on April 28.

The 2012 nominees across 13 categories include:

Aqua Lansdowne Prize for Poetry

• A Walker in the City by Méira Cook (Brick Books)
• Girlwood by Jennifer Still (Brick)
• Poème Pierre Prière by J.R. Léveillé (Éditions du Blé)

Best Illustrated Book of the Year

• David’s Trip to Paraguay: The Country with Amazing Colours /Davids Reise in das Land der vielen Farben, Miriam Rudolph (CMU Press)
• Reise in das Land der vielen Farben by Miriam Rudolph (Canadian Mennonite University Press)
• The Imagination Manifesto: Book Three by John Toone; GMB Chomichuk, illus. (Alchemical Press)
• Portraits of Winnipeg by Robert J. Sweeney (Turnstone Press)

Manuela Dias Book Design of the Year

• Jamis Paulson, Alert to Glory by Sally Ito (Turnstone)
• Jamis Paulson, Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
• Bernard Léveillé, Poème Pierre Prière by J.R. Léveillé (Éditions du Blé)

Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book

• A Large Harmonium by Sue Sorensen (Coteau Books)
• Dadolescence by Bob Armstrong (Turnstone)
• Winnie the Bear by M.A. Appleby (Self-published)

Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award

• Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
• Forgotten Heroes: Winnipeg’s Hockey Heritage by Richard Brignall (J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing)
• Ravenscraig by Sandi Krawchenko Altner (Heartland Associates)
• Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900“1967 by Dale Barbour (University of Manitoba Press)

Michael Van Rooy Award for Genre Fiction

• The Girl in the Wall by Alison Preston (Signature Editions)
• The Imagination Manifesto: Book Three by John Toone; GMB Chomichuk, illus. (Alchemical Press)
• The Thirteen by Susie Moloney (Random House Canada)
• The Valedictorians by David Annandale (Ravenstone)

Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction

• Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
• The Girl in the Wall by Alison Preston (Signature)
• A Large Harmonium by Sue Sorensen (Coteau)
• Not Being on a Boat by Esmé Claire Keith (Freehand Books)
• Twelve Drummers Drumming by C.C. Benison (Doubleday Canada)

Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction

• The Blaikie Report: An Insider’s Look at Faith and Politics by Bill Blaikie (United Church Publishing House)
• Canadian Labour in Crisis: Reinventing the Workers’ Movement by David Camfield (Fernwood Publishing)
• Community and Frontier: A Ukrainian Settlement in the Canadian Parkland by John C. Lehr (UMP)
• Good Places to Live: Poverty and Public Housing in Canada by Jim Silver (Fernwood)
• King “ William Lyon MacKenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny by Allan Levine (Douglas and McIntyre)

John Hirsch Award for Most Promising Manitoba Writer

• Bob Armstrong
• Jonathan Ball
• Jennifer Still

Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher

• Alert to Glory by Sally Ito (Turnstone)
• Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
• Butterfly Winter by W.P. Kinsella (Enfield and Wizenty)
• La plus belle Création de Corbeau by David Bouchard; Brigitte Lopez, illus. (Les Éditions des Plaines)
• What the Bear Said: Skald Tales of New Iceland by W.D. Valgardson (Turnstone)

McNally Robinson Book for Young People Award

Younger kids category:

• Annie’s Bright Idea: A Christmastime Adventure by Audrhea Lande; Jenny Prest, illus. (Self-published)
• Nanabosho and the Butterflies by Joe and Matrine McLellan; Jackie Traverse, illus. (Pemmican Publications)
• S is for Scientists: A Discovery Alphabet by Larry Verstraete; David Geister; illus. (Sleeping Bear Press)

Older kids category:

• Case Files: 40 Murders and Mysteries Solved by Science by Larry Verstraete (Scholastic Canada)
• Kingdom of Trolls by Rae Bridgman (Sybertooth)
• Tori by Design by Colleen Nelson (Great Plains Teen Fiction)

McNally Robinson Book of the Year

• Bandit: A Portrait of Ken Leishman by Wayne Tefs (Turnstone)
• Dancing, with Mirrors by George Amabile (Porcupine’s Quill)
• King “ William Lyon MacKenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny by Allan Levine (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Not Being on a Boat by Esmé Claire Keith (Freehand)
• Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900“1967 by Dale Barbour (UMP)