Colleen Nelson, Arnolda Dufour Bowes and Louise Bernice Halfe among finalists for 2022 High Plains Book Awards

Colleen Nelson, Arnolda Dufour Bowes and Louise Bernice Halfe are among 13 Canadians nominated for the 2022 High Plains Book Awards.

Founded in 2006, the High Plains Book Awards recognize excellent writing from the High Plains region in North America. The award program recognizes books in 12 categories, including fiction, nonfiction, photography and children's books.

The High Plains are comprised of the Canadian provinces Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and the United States of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas.

A record 293 titles were nominated in 2022. The winners will be announced on Oct. 8 in Billings, Mont.

Nelson is nominated twice, once in the Children's Book category for her book The Undercover Book List and once for The Life and Deaths of Frankie D. in the Young Adult Award category.

In The Undercover Book List, Nelson tells the fictional story of Jane MacDonald, a seventh-grader who feels lonely after her best friend Sienna moves to the other side of the country and her father is posted overseas. Jane soon realizes Sienna has left her with one last trick: a hidden message in a library book.

In The Life and Deaths of Frankie D., Frankie,found in an alley when she was a child, has no memory of who she is or why she was left there. Frankie is haunted byconnected dreams involvinga 100-year-old carnival sideshow, a performer known as Alligator Girl, and a man named Monsieur Duval.

Colleen Nelson is a YA author based in Winnipeg. Her other books include the award-winning Harvey Comes Home, Pulse Point, Spin, Blood Brothers and Finding Hope.

Dufour Bowes is nominated for her short story collection 20.12m in the Indigenous Writer category.

20.12m: A Short Story Collection of a Life Lived as a Road Allowance Mtis celebrates and acknowledges the humble living conditions of Mtis Road Allowance families and it exemplifies their grit and tenacity to survive in the face of hardship.

Arnolda Dufour Bowes is a Mtis author originally from Saskatoon who studied creative writing with Guy Vanderhaeghe at the University of Saskatchewan. The book 20.12m won the 2022 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and was also a finalist for the 2022 finalist for the Saskatchewan Book Awards.

• Arnolda Dufour Bowes among finalists for $10K Danuta Gleed Literary Award

Opening with a joyful and intimate introduction from Elder Maria Campbell, awsis - kinky and dishevelledfeatures themes ofIndigenous resurgence, resistanceandlaughter.

Louise Bernice Halfe, whose Cree name is Sky Dancer,isCanada's ninthParliamentary Poet Laureateandserved as the first Indigenous Poet Laureate of Saskatchewan. She was born in Two Hills, Alta.,wasraised on the Saddle Lake First Nation and attended Blue Quills Residential School.

Halfe's poetry collections also includeBear Bones & Feathers,Blue Marrow,The Crooked GoodandBurning in this Midnight Dream.

The shortlisted Canadian titles are:

Children's Book

• The Undercover Book List by Colleen Nelson
• The Mystery of the Giant Kohlrabi by Sharon Plumb
• Dear Peter, Dear Ulla by Barbara Nickel

Creative Nonfiction

• We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing by Jillian Horton

First Book

• Miraculous Sickness by ky perraun

Indigenous Writer

• 20.12m by Arnolda Dufour Bowes
• Kitotam by John Brady McDonald

Medicine & Science

• We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing by Jillian Horton
• The Scenic Geology of Alberta: A Roadside Touring and Hiking Guide by Dale Leckie

Nonfiction

• We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing by Jillian Horton

Poetry

• awsiskinky and disheveled by Louise Bernice Halfe

Woman Writer

• Ancestors: Indigenous Peoples of Western Canada in Historic Photographs by Sarah Carter and Inez Lightning

Young Adult

• The Life and Deaths of Frankie D. by Colleen Nelson
• When You Least Expect It by Lorna Schultz Nicholson