Shortlist for Jewish book prizes announced

The Koffler Centre of the Arts has announced the shortlist for the 2017 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature.  Winners will be announced Oct. 3 at the Park Hyatt Hotel.

The Vine Awards honour the best Canadian Jewish writers and Canadian authors who deal with Jewish subjects in four categories: fiction, non-fiction, history and young adult/children’s literature; each with a prize of $10,000.

The jury, Ami Sands Brodoff, Bob Bossin, and Cary Fagan selected the shortlist from the 58 submissions accepted this year. 

Non-Fiction:

• Closer: Notes from the Orgasmic
Frontier of Female Sexuality
– Sarah Barmak (Coach House Books)

• White Walls – Judy Batalion (Berkley)

• Chasing Utopia – David Leach (ECW Press)

• Toward a Hot Jew – Miriam Libicki
(Fantagraphics Books Inc.)

Fiction:

• School of Velocity – Eric Beck Rubin (Doubleday Canada)

• Carry Me – Peter Behrens (House of Anansi Press)

• For All the Men (and Some of the Women) I’ve Known – Danila Botha (Tightrope Books)

History:

• By Chance Alone – Max Eisen (Harper Collins Publishers)

• Pumpkin Flowers – Matti Friedman (McClelland & Stewart)

• A Future Without Hate or Need: The Promise of the Jewish Left in Canada – Ester Reiter (Between the Lines)

Children’s/Young Adult:

• Feathered – Deborah Kerbel (Kids Can Press)

• Irena’s Children – Tilar Mazzeo and Mary Farrell (Margaret K. McElderry Books)

• Seeking Refuge – Irene N. Watts and Kathryn E. Shoemaker (Tradewind Books).