Saskatchewan Book Awards celebrate excellence at 25th awards ceremony

Almost three hundred people gathered at the Conexus Arts Centre on April 28th to celebrate 25 years of excellence in writing and publishing at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. Tenille Campbell, Beth Goobie, and Trevor Herriot all won two awards each at the 25th Saskatchewan Book Awards Ceremony. Local musician Kara Golemba kicked off the Awards Ceremony with some live music, Zarqa Nawaz was delightfully funny as this year’s MC, and Saskatchewan’s Poet Laureate Brenda Schmidt shared her love of poetry with the audience before the awards presentations began.
 
A special presentation from SaskBooks recognized Geoffry Ursell, Publisher Emeritus and co-founder of Coteau Books, who received the inaugural Recognition of the Advancement of Book Publishing in Saskatchewan. The selection committee acknowledged Geoffrey’s herculean accomplishments as a founder of many foundational organizations in the province, including Coteau Books, and as a nurturer of many great talents in the literary arts.
 
Debut author Tenille Campbell received the O’Reilly Insurance and The Co-operators First Book Award and the Rasmussen, Rasmussen and Charowsky Indigenous Peoples’ Writing Award for her debut book of poetry, #IndianLovePoems, which was hailed by the jurors as “a ground-breaking and important resurgence of Indigenous female voice.” A previous winner of several Saskatchewan Book Awards, Trevor Herriot was awarded the University of Saskatchewan Non-Fiction Award and the City of Regina Book Award for Islands of Grass, an impassioned plea to preserve local grasslands. Beth Goobie’s latest book, breathing at dusk is a stunning collection of poetry that deals courageously with childhood sexual abuse. It won the Saskatchewan Arts Board Poetry Award and the City of Saskatoon and Public Library Saskatoon Book Award.
 
Other award winners included Miriam Körner and Bernice Johnson-Laxdal for their children’s book, When the Trees Crackle with Cold, Kathleen Carlisle for Fiery Joe: The Maverick Who Lit Up the West, and Dawn Dumont for her short story collection Glass Beads. Ven Begamudré took home the prestigious Regina Public Library Book of the Year Award for his memoir, Extended Families. The full list of award winners is available at bookawards.sk.ca.