Ami McKay

This year’s Atlantic Book Awards were announced virtually on June 30. Ami McKay received two awards for Daughter of Family G: A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate (Knopf Canada), which tracks her family history with cancer back to the mid 1800s. Newfoundland author Gemma Hickey took home two awards for their memoir Almost Feral, which recounts Hickey’s 908-kilometre trek across Newfoundland raising funds for survivors of clergy abuse.

The $25,000 Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award went to Newfoundland author Michael Crummey for his novel The Innocents (Doubleday Canada).

The virtual gala is available to watch on the Atlantic Book Awards website, atlanticbookawards.ca, and on YouTube.

The 13 winners are:

Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children’s Literature
Everybody’s Different on EveryBody Street by Sheree Fitch (Nimbus Publishing)

Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing
Truth and Conviction: Donald Marshall Jr. and the Mik’kmaw Quest for Justice by L. Jane McMillan (UBC Press)

Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association’s Best Atlantic-Published Book Award
Breakwater Books for Almost Feral by Gemma Hickey

Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing
Dangerous Enemy Sympathizers:  Canadian Internment Camp B, 1940–1945 by Andrew Theobald (Goose Lane Editions)

Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award
Daughter of Family G:  A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate by Ami McKay (Knopf Canada)

Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)
The Difference by Marina Endicott (Knopf Canada)

 J.M. Abraham Poetry Award
Belated Bris of the Brainsick by Lucas Crawford (Nightwood Editions)

Lillian Shepherd Award for Excellence in Illustration
Sydney Smith for Small in the City, written by Sydney Smith (Groundwood Books)

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Fiction)
Crow by Amy Spurway (Goose Lane Editions)

The Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award (Non-fiction)
Daughter of Family G:  A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate by Ami McKay (Knopf Canada)

Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award
The Innocents by Michael Crummey (Doubleday Canada)