Shore Girl wins Alberta Readers' Choice

May 27, 2013

I’m thrilled to announce that The Shore Girl has won the 2013 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award. I’m so deeply grateful to the Edmonton Public Library for bringing Alberta authors and readers together with this fabulous contest. Readers were allowed to choose the winning title, and when they announced my name at the snazzy gala on Saturday night, I nearly fell on the floor. It’s been such a honour to be alongside these other finalists, whose books I love and whose writing I admire so much: Naimo Lewis for I Know Who You Remind Me Of; Marcello Di Cintio for Walls: Travels Along the Barricades; Tim Bowling for The Tinsmith, and Will Ferguson for419.

I think publishing a first novel is much like a first date. You hope to feel special. And that’s certainly the way NeWest Press treats its authors. No matter what emotions I’ve thrown at them along the way – panic, fear, hurt, joy, elation – their reaction is always the same. My lovely editor, Anne Nothof, and the small but mighty team at NeWest (Paul Matwychuk, Matt Bowes, Tiiu Vuorensola, and formerly Andrew Wilmot) have been unconditionally supportive and generous, as has award-winning designer, Natalie Olsen. I can’t thank the NeWest team enough for pouring their energy into The Shore Girl and bringing out her best.

The ability to give and share love, to find a sense of home wherever you are, has been a difficult and allusive quest for my characters. In my life, I’ve been blessed in abundance with love – loving parents, a loving husband, loving daughters and friends. You are my home and I’m crazy about you.

I'm crazy about my readers too. As Joyce Carol Oates so eloquently describes, “Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.” Thank you, dear readers, for slipping into Rebee’s heart and soul so enthusiastically.

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