What A Week You’ve Had!

Lovely image created by my fantastic publisher Heritage House to announce my nomination for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award

“What a week you’ve had! I am so excited for you!” Colleen Nelson the award winning children’s author who is so amazingly supportive of emerging writers made that comment yesterday when it was announced that my book Lost on the Prairie had been shortlisted for the Manitoba Book Awards Eileen McTavish Sykes Prize for Best First Book!

Her words referenced the fact that on Wednesday of this week Lost on the Prairie was nominated for the Sundogs MYRCA Award and as if that wasn’t exciting enough……. yesterday it was nominated for a Manitoba Book Award. Two award nominations in one week? My heart be still.

Image from the Manitoba Book Awards Facebook page

I am shortlisted for the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award with a group of talented debut writers Primrose Madayag Knazan, Rowan McCandless , Errol Ranville, and Jillian Horton. I am honoured to be considered in a league with them.

I was curious about Eileen McTavish Sykes who the Manitoba Writers Guild honoured with their prize for debut authors. I couldn’t find a photo of her or the name of a book she had written but did learn that she published children’s books of verse, stories, and magazine articles and was active as a volunteer with many community organizations that addressed the needs of children. She died in 2002.

The Eileen McTavish Sykes Award was won last year by my friend and former teaching colleague Andrew Unger for his novel Once Removed. The winner of this year’s award will be announced on June 9th.

I am so appreciative of everyone who helped me and supported me and encouraged me during the more than five year journey to write and have Lost on the Prairie published, the wonderful organizations and businesses who sponsor the Manitoba Book Awards and the many, many people who have bought my book.

Other posts………

Would You Want Your Child To Be A Doctor?–( my post about fellow nominee Jillian Horton’s book We Are All Perfectly Fine)

What I Liked About the Novel Once Removed–(my post about the book that won The Eileen McTavish Sykes Award last year)

All my blog posts about my book Lost on the Prairie can be found here.