Randy Lundy wins book of the year and poetry prize at 2021 Saskatchewan Book Awards
Jane van Koeverden | | Posted: July 7, 2021 4:55 PM | Last Updated: July 7, 2021
The Saskatchewan Book Awards presented 14 prizes to celebrate writing and publishing in the province
Randy Lundy's poetry collection Field Notes for the Self, a self-reflective journey through ancestral trauma, won both the book of the year and the poetry award at the 2021 Saskatchewan Book Awards.
The Saskatchewan Book Awards presented 14 prizes in total to celebrate writing and publishing in the province this year.
The prizes collectively award $29,000 to the winners.
The Book of the Year Award is sponsored by the Regina Public Library. The winner receives $3,000.
The poetry prize is worth $2,000.
Like Lundy's previous collection, Blackbird Song, Field Notes for the Self is rooted in observations of the natural world. Lundy's poetry deals with the liberation of personal and inherited trauma, sifting through memories of violence inflicted on Lundy's Indigenous ancestors.
"For me, the birds, the trees, the creek, the sky, the stars… they summon inner resources in me. That sense of peace, that sense of solace, that sense of quiet that many of us are yearning for in our lives — those resources are still in there. I draw upon the natural world to access those inner resources for myself, but they're in all of us," said Lundy in an interview about the book with The Next Chapter host Shelagh Rogers.
"Sometimes the poems will stir and muddy the waters. But the poetry I like the best is about that search for the calm waters and the still waters, where the sediment and silt are allowed to settle down to the bottom. There's some clarity that comes to our vision, whether that's looking out at the world or looking into our inner worlds."
Dianne Warren won the $2,000 City of Regina Award for her latest novel The Diamond House. The book follows the rebellion of Estella Diamond, the youngest daughter of a wealthy brick factory owner, who is inspired to follow the daring path of her father's first wife instead of her traditional mother.
Warren is a dramatist and novelist. She won the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction for her 2010 book Cool Water.
Here's the full list of winners:
- Book of the Year & Poetry Award: Field Notes for the Self by Randy Lundy
- Fiction Award: If Sylvie Had Nine Lives by Leona Theis
- Nonfiction Award: A Radiant Life: The Honourable Sylvia Fedoruk by Merle Massie
- Indigenous Peoples' Writing Award: The Narrows of Fear by Carol Rose GoldenEagle
- First Book Award: The Burden of Gravity by Shannon McConnell
- Regina Award: The Diamond House by Dianne Warren
- Saskatoon Award: Small Reckonings by Karin Melberg Schwier
- Young Adult Award: Qaqavii by Miriam Körner
- Prix du livre français: Junk City by David Baudemont
- Scholarly Award: The Red Road and Other Narratives of the Dakota Sioux by Samuel Mniyo and Robert Goodvoice, edited by Daniel M. Beveridge, translations by Jurgita Antoine