A packed audience applauded enthusiastically as winners were announced at the Atlantic Writing Awards late this afternoon at Alderney Landing Theatre in Dartmouth. . . . . .

Stephen Kimber with Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War was greeted with riotous applause as he was awarded the Dartmouth Non-fiction Award ($1,500). Also shortlisted were John Griffith Armstrong for The Halifax Explosion and the Royal Canadian Navy (UBC Press) and John N. Grant for The Maroons of Nova Scotia (Formac).

No sooner had Stephen Kimber returned to the audience than he was called back to the stage to be awarded the Evelyn Richardson Prize for Non-fiction ($1,000). The other nominees for this prize were Dan Falk for Universe on a T-Shirt and Michael Harris for Con Game: The Truth about Canada’s Prisons (McClelland & Stewart). . . .

. . The Booksellers’ Choice Award ($1,000) was presented to Wayne Johnston for The Navigator of New York (Knopf Canada). Voted by readers and booksellers across the region, the award is sponsored by the Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Association and included Stephen Kimber for Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs (Doubleday Canada) and Donna Morrissey for Downhill Chance on their 2002 ballot.

Atlantic Book Awards is presented by the Steering Committee of Atlantic Book Week which is made up of representation from Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Association, Nova Scotia Library Association, Halifax Regional Library, Halifax Regional Municipality, PEI Writers’ Guild, Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland & Labrador and Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. Nominees and winners are chosen by independent juries composed of members of the literary community. The Steering Committee acknowledges the generous support of our prize sponsors, CBC Radio-One and the Canada Council for the Arts.

For further information, please contact

Jane Buss or Monika Sormova,

WFNS902-423-8116

talk@writers.ns.cawww.writers.ns.ca

See: "And the nominees are…"