Paul Seesequasis leads Sask. Book Awards shortlist in number of nominations

Paul Seesequasis is leading the way in nominations for the Saskatchewan Book Awards in 2020, with Harold Johnson not far behind.

The Saskatchewan Book Awards announced their 2020 shortlist on February 14.

Dozens of books will be looked at by judges and the winners will be announced at the Saskatchewan Book Awards Ceremony on Saturday, April 25, 2020.

Book of the year award nominations

• Birds of Saskatchewan, edited by Alan R. Smith, C. Stuart Houston, and J. Frank Roy

• Voice by Adam Pottle

Paul Seesequasis previously told CBC his book Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun was inspired by comments made by his mother. She said there were awful things that happened to Indigenous people in the past but strength, resilience and kinship kept families and communities together.

"Without that resilience and strength what we see today, that sort of renaissance in Indigenous writing and language and culture, that would not have survived," Seesequasis said.

Seesequasis has spent years gathering archival images of Indigenous people to show the other side of their history.

Author Harold Johnson told CBC when he heard courts in Saskatchewan deliver a verdict of not guilty in the trial of Gerald Stanley, he immediately shut the radio off.

Stanley was charged with killing 22-year-old Colten Boushie from Red Pheasant First Nation on August 9, 2016. The case inspired Johnson, a former Crown Prosecutor, to write Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada.

Children's literature award nominations

• When We Had Sled Dogs by Ida Tremblay and Miriam Körner

• The Absence of Sparrows by Kurt Kirchmeier

• The Haunting of Room 909: Junior Paranormal Investigators by Michael James

• The Underdog Duckling by Sally Meadows

Elder Ida Tremblay and author and illustrator Miriam Körner wrote When We Had Sled Dogs: A Story from the Trapline to inspire future generations to get back to the bush in Northern Saskatchewan.

Tremblay died before she could see the book published in 2019, but the books lesson's and spirit are largely thanks to her, Körner previously told CBC.

"In many ways she's still there, because what she has taught us is so profound that it is not just tied to the person that she is, but walking through the bush and seeing things through her eyes or with her teachings in mind," Körner said in June 2019.

Fiction award nominations

• Kaidenberg's Best Sons by Jason Heit

• Master of the World by Edward Willett

Chaz Osburn's book At the Wolf's Door was inspired by a contingent of British soldiers who were sent on a top-secret mission to arrive in the Canadian Rockies to construct a warship out of ice.

"You know that saying that truth is stranger than fiction? This really epitomized that to me," Osburn told CBC's Edmonton AM in August, 2019.

Non-fiction award nominations

• Birds of Saskatchewan, edited by Alan R. Smith, C. Stuart Houston, and J. Frank Roy

• Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun by Paul Seesequasis

• Vasily Grossman and the Soviet Century by Alexandra Popoff

• Peace and Good Order by Harold R. Johnson

• Strangers in the House by Candace Savage

Saskatoon author Candace Savage was inspired to write Strangers in the House when she was researching the people who first lived in her home.

Napoléon Sureau dit Blondin built the house in the 1920s, an era when French-speakers like him were deemed "undesirable" by the political and social elite.

Savage found a family who was living in an atmosphere poisoned by the Orange Order and then the Ku Klux Klan. Napoléon and his young family adopted anglicized names and did their best to disguise their "foreignness," Savage previously told CBC.

Regina book award nominations

• Critters by Allan Dotson

• Five Red Sentries by Raye Hendrickson

• A Walk in Wascana by Stephanie Vance

• Wide Open by D.M. Ditson

Stephanie Vance was inspired to write her children's book, A Walk in Wascana after walking through Wascana Park in Regina with her children. The brightly coloured illustrations include small bunnies for young readers to find.

Regina author D.M. Ditson wrote Wide Open to offer sexual assault survivors hope, and potentially proof, that they too can heal. Her memorial accounts her unravelling in the wake of a series of sexual assaults by several men that left her with PTSD.

"I just want to build empathy both for survivors to feel towards themselves, and for the people who love them. The people who love me have gone through an awful lot as well," Ditson told CBC's The Morning Edition.

The awards will be held at the Conexus Arts Centre in Regina. Kris Alvarez will be hosting the 27th Sask. Book Awards and tickets are $60 until March 31. On April 1, tickets will be $75 each.

For tickets, people can phone 306-569-1585 or email info@bookawards.sk.ca.