Wayne Curtis, Herménégilde Chiasson, and Jo-Anne Elder are among the finalists for the fourth annual New Brunswick Book Awards, announced by the Writers Federation of New Brunswick on March 18, 2019.


In the non-fiction category, Wayne Curtis is nominated for his book Fishing the High Country, a beautifully written memoir of his decades of life along the Miramichiriver, fishing with his father, his sons and friends. Other finalists for the nonfiction prize include CBC journalist Jacques Poitras, author of Pipe Dreams; and Order of New Brunswick recipient Raymond Fraser, author of Through Sunlight and Shadows.
 
Jo-Anne Elder and  Herménégilde Chiasson are nominated for the Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize for To Live and Die in Scoudouc,, Elder’s translation of Chiasson’s seminal collection, Mourir à Scoudou. New Brunswick’s former Lieutenant Governor, Chiasson is considered to be the father of Acadian modernism. Mourir à Scoudouc was his first book of poetry. Originally published in French in 1972, this collection emerged out of a period of profound cultural awakening. Today it reads with the urgency that it did when it was first published. Other finalists for the poetry award include Fredericton Poet Laureate Jenna Lyn Albert, author of Bec & Call and Kayla Geitzler for That Light Feeling Under Your Feet.

The New Brunswick Book Awards will be presented at an awards presentation ceremony on Saturday, May 25, at the Moncton Press Club, beginning at 6 p.m.

The New Brunswick Book Awards were created in 2015 as a partnership of the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick and the Fiddlehead, Canada’s oldest literary magazine.