Sheree Fitch among finalists for 2020 Atlantic Book Awards

Sheree Fitch's children's book Everybody'sDifferent on EveryBody Street isamong the 35 shortlisted titles for the 2020 Atlantic Book Awards, a coalition of 13different 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.

Fitch's Everybody'sDifferent on EveryBody Street is shortlisted for the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature.

The book, illustrated by Emma Fitzgerald, explores individuality and embracing everyone's gifts, weaknesses, differences and sameness.

Everybody'sDifferent on EveryBody Street was originally created in 2001 as a fundraiser to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Festival of Trees in support of the Nova Scotia Hospital and to raise awareness for mental illness and addiction.

• Sheree Fitch talksabout great stories and magical words

AmySpurway is nominated for twoawards for her debut novel, Crow:the Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction and the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for Fiction.

The book follows a woman diagnosed with three highly unpredictable and inoperable brain tumours, who abandons her life in Toronto to stay in her mother's scruffy trailer in rural Cape Breton and decides to write a memoir.

The 2020 Atlantic Book Awards also includes one of Canada's largest book prizes, the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, valued at $25,000.

This year's Raddall Award nominees are Nova Scotia's Jaime Burnet for Crocuses Hatch from Snow,Newfoundland's Michael Crummey for The Innocents and Nova Scotia author and filmmaker Shandi Mitchell for The Waiting Hours.

The 2020 Pioneer Award, which recognizes a Nova Scotian who has made a substantial contribution to the region's literary canon, is postponed until 2021, when it will be awarded in person.

The winners will be announced on June 30.

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

Alistair MacLeod Prize for Short Fiction

• A Dark House and Other Stories by Ian Colford
• Digby Terry Doyle
• Nosy White Woman by Martha Wilson

Ann Connor Brimer Award for Children's Literature

• EveryBody's Different on EveryBody Street by Sheree Fitch
• A World Below by Wesley King
• I'm Finding My Talk by Rebecca Thomas

Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association Best Atlantic-Published Book Award

• Almost Feral by Gemma Hickey
• I Lost My Talk by Rita Joe and I'm Finding My Talk by Rebecca Thomas (companion books), illustrated by Pauline Young
• Land Beyond the Sea by Kevin Major

Atlantic Book Award for Scholarly Writing

• Shaped by Silenceby Rie Croll
• The Wakeby Linden MacIntyre
• Truth and Convictionby L. Jane McMillan

Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing

• Listening for the Dead Bells by Marian Bruce
• As British as the Kingby Gerald Hallowell
• Dangerous Enemy Sympathizersby Andrew Theobald Elliott

Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award

• Daughter of Family Gby Ami McKay
• Mayann Francisby The Honourable Dr. Mayann Francis
• Hell and Damnationby Marq de Villiers

Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)

• The Difference by Marina Endicott
• Broken Symmetry by Rosalie Osmond
• Crow by Amy Spurway

J.M. Abraham Poetry Award

• Year of the Metal Rabbit by Tammy Armstrong
• Smallholding by Anne Compton
• Belated Bris of the Brainsick by Lucas Crawford

Lillian Shepherd Memorial Award for Excellence in Illustration

• Peg Bearskin: A Traditional Newfoundland Tale, by Andy Jones and Philip Dinn, adapted from a story told by Mrs. Elizabeth Brewer and illustrated by Denise Gallagher
• Un gant dans la tteby Danielle Loranger
• Small in the Cityby Sydney Smith

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award Non-Fiction

• Almost Feral by Gemma Hickey
• Wounded Heartsby Lois Legge
• Transplantedby Allison Watson

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award Fiction

• Digby Terry Doyle
• Going Dutch by James Gregor
• Crow by Amy Spurway

Robbie Robertson Dartmouth Book Award (Non-fiction)

• Grandfather's Houseby Clive Doucet
• Daughter of Family Gby Ami McKay
• Ghosts Withinby Garry Leech

Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award

• Crocuses Hatch from Snow by Jaime Burnet
• The Innocents by Michael Crummey
• The Waiting Hours by Shandi Mitchell