Halifax poet and author David Huebert among finalists for 2022 Atlantic Book Awards

David Huebert's short story collection Chemical Valley is among the 36 shortlisted titles for the 2022 Atlantic Book Awards, a coalition of 12 different book prizes.

The awards, managed by the Atlantic Book Awards Society, recognize books from Atlantic Canada including poetry, illustrated children's books, adult fiction and non-fiction.

Huebert's latest collection of short stories, is named after Chemical Valley, a region in Sarnia, Ont., with a large number of plants and refineries. Many of Huebert's characters in Chemical Valley make their living from the petrochemical industry, but also see the impacts of climate change. 

Chemical Valley has been shortlisted both for the Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction and the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award.

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Valued at $30,000, the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award is one of the richest prizes in Canadian literature.

Huebert is the Halifax author of two poetry collections and two works of fiction. His first collection of short stories, Peninsula Sinking, won the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award and was shortlisted for the Alistair MacLeod Fiction Prize. He won the 2016 CBC Short Story Prize for his story Enigma.

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Lawyer and retired Senate of Canada member Don Oliver is nominated for two awards for his memoir A Matter of Equality: the George Borden Writing for Change Award and the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award – Non-Fiction.

A Matter of Equality chronicles Oliver's childhood growing up in the only Black family in Wolfville, N.S., and the achievement of becoming the first Black man appointed to the Senate.

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Donna Morrissey has been nominated for the Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award for her book Pluck. The debut memoir takes readers through her experiences with mental illness, family loss and her journey to becoming a writer. 

Morrissey is a Halifax author. She won Canada Reads in 2005 and appeared on the "all-star" competition in 2007.

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The winners will be announced on June 9, as part of the Atlantic Book Awards Festival in Halifax.

You can see the complete shortlists for all the awards below.

Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction

• Chemical Valley by David Huebert
• The Running Trees by Amber McMillan
• The Love Olympics by Claire Wilkshire

Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature

• The Train by Jodie Callaghan
• Thanks a Lot, Universe by Chad Lucas
• Swift Fox All Along by Rebecca Thomas

APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award

• My Indian by Saqamaw Mi'sel Joe & Sheila O'Neill
• Alexa! by Stephen Kimber
• Future Possible by Mireille Eagan

Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing

• The Archaeology of the Atlantic Northeast by Matthew W. Betts & M. Gabriel Hrynick
• Where Beauty Survived by George Elliott Clarke
• Insurgent Love by Ardath Whynacht

Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award

• Alexa! by Stephen Kimber
• Dying for Attention by Susan MacLeod
• Pluck by Donna Morrissey

George Borden Writing for Change Award

• My Daughter Rehtaeh Parsons by Glen Canning with Susan McClelland
• Alexa! by Stephen Kimber
• A Matter of Equality by Don Oliver

Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)

• Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes by Hannah Moscovitch
• Jude and Diana by Sharon Robart-Johnson
• Short Mercy by Colin Sweets Arsenault

J.M. Abraham Poetry Award

• Poisonous if Eaten Raw by Alyda Faber
• Myself a Paper Clip by Triny Finlay
• Sulphurtongue by Rebecca Salazar

Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration

• Gemma and the Giant Girl by Sara O'Leary, illustrated by Marie Lafrance
• This is Ruby by Sara O'Leary, illustrated by Alea Marley
• Le Géant du Nord Canadien by Réjean Roy

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award – Non-Fiction

• A Womb in the Shape of a Heart by Joanne Gallant
• Dying for Attention by Susan MacLeod
• A Matter of Equality by Don Oliver

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award – Fiction 

• The Last Time I Saw Her by Alexandra Harrington
• Beneath Her Skin by C. S. Porter
• Short Mercy by Colin Sweets Arsenault

Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

• Constant Nobody by Michelle Butler Hallett
• Chemical Valley by David Huebert
• Jude and Diana by Sharon Robart-Johnson