Awards Season
Spotlighting our recent winners and finalists!
The wider world may be preoccupied with the recent Oscar nominations, but here at the Bibliomanse we’ve got our own flurry of awards news to celebrate. With such an exciting start to the year, we wanted to highlight the books, and authors and translators who have been recently recognized for their brilliant stories and hard work.
Ashley Van Elswyk
Editorial Assistant
Near Distance
by Hanna Stoltenberg, translated by Wendy H. Gabrielsen
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Awards’ Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize
Our first book of 2025 (how long ago that feels now!) was this slim Norwegian translation, which just earlier this week was announced as one of the five finalists for the Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize. It is the second Biblioasis book to be nominated for the NBCC Awards, after Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat in 2022.
An in-house favourite, Near Distance has received glowing reviews from the Globe and Mail and Literary Review of Canada, and is best summed up by our publicist Dominique in a previous Bibliophile:
Though under a hundred pages, the tense, encroaching malaise of Stoltenberg’s debut novel has stayed with me. Near Distance portrays the tenuous relationship between a mother, Karin, and her adult daughter, Helene. Stoltenberg told me that Karin was based on the fathers she knew growing up: casually uninvolved, inclined to focus on themselves, emotionally distant. For such a short book, the character of Karin is so complex and strikingly herself; I still think of her frequently.
The Gregg Barrios Book in Translation Prize honors the best book of any genre translated into English and published in the United States. As NBCC judge Mandana Chaffa states, the Barrios shortlist features “remarkable books by notable authors, which are only available to English readers because of the gifted translators and committed publishers who bring them to life.”
The winner’s announcement will be made at the NBCC awards ceremony and reception on Thursday, March 26. Check out a copy and join us in cheering for Near Distance.
Baldwin, Styron, and Me
by Mélikah Abdelmoumen, translated by Catherine Khordoc
Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction
Another Biblioasis translation received recognition when Baldwin, Styron, and Me by Mélikah Abdelmoumen, translated from the French by Catherine Khordoc, was named as one of the three finalists for the Carnegie Medal in Nonfiction.
This fascinating book is both an exploration of the unexpected friendship between writers James Baldwin and William Styron, and an examination of Abdelmoumen’s own life and standpoint as a racialized woman. Considering questions of identity, race, equity, and the often contentious public debates about these topics, Abdelmoumen works to create a space where the answers are found by first learning how to listen—even in disagreement.
In the American Library Association’s finalists announcement, Baldwin, Styron, and Me was praised as:
A fascinating meditation on how disparate writers can stimulate each others’ creativity and on the pitfalls of cross-cultural art.
Our publicist Dominique wrote of this book in a previous Bibliophile:
Abdelmoumen doesn’t take sides, but rather creates space for dialogue about race and cultural appropriation that avoids binary thinking. This book champions a definition of identity that is “in a constant state of flux,” that depends first and foremost on listening to others—what she calls “the beauty of cross-pollination.” I’m not someone who is prone to optimism, but the hope at the heart of Abdelmoumen’s book softened last winter’s sharp edges.
For more about the book, here’s a brief interview with Mélikah:
The winner will be announced next Tuesday, January 27, and the whole press is keeping our fingers crossed for Baldwin!
Mark Bourrie
Winner of the 2025 Governor General’s History Award for Popular Media: The Pierre Berton Award
This well-deserved recognition is not for just one book, but for a passionate and engaging author who’s been called “Canada’s greatest historian” (Toronto Star) and “the dean of Canadian literary non-fiction” (Winnipeg Free Press).
Mark Bourrie was announced as the recipient for this year’s Pierre Berton Award by the Canada’s History Society, and will receive the award from Governor General Mary Simon at an upcoming ceremony in Ottawa.
In Canada’s History’s feature on Mark here, they note:
As both historian and journalist, Mark Bourrie has built a distinguished career bridging scholarship and public engagement. Over four decades, his writing has revealed the complexity and richness of Canada’s history—from early encounters between Europeans and Indigenous peoples to the political struggles, wars, and media forces that have shaped the country’s modern identity. A gifted storyteller, Bourrie crafts deeply researched narratives that inform and captivate readers.
The award recognizes individuals who have helped increase understanding of Canadian history, and just looking at the work he’s published with Biblioasis in the last seven years alone—from exploring the life of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s founder, to today’s modern political players—there’s no doubt why Mark was honoured: Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson (2019), Big Men Fear Me: The Fast Life and Quick Death of Canada’s Most Powerful Media Mogul (2022), Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia (2024), and Ripper: The Making of Pierre Poilievre (2025).
In their press release, president and CEO of Canada’s History Society Melony Ward praised:
“Mark Bourrie makes our country’s history as vivid as anything happening today. He embraces the complexity of the past to create works that brim with conflict, struggle, and larger-than-life characters, all firmly grounded in research.”
Profiling Bourrie’s award win, Steven Beattie wrote in That Shakespearean Rag:
Bourrie’s work is of a vanishing breed: deeply researched, ambitious, and focused on critical investigations of subjects even some Canadians thought they knew thoroughly.
Congratulations from all of us to Mark.
In good publicity news:
Smash & Grab by Mark Anthony Jarman was featured in Quill & Quire’s 2026 Spring Preview: Short Fiction, Graphic Novels & Poetry.
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann was featured in the New York Times’s list of “10 Long Books to Cozy Up With This Winter.”
Self Care by Russell Smith was reviewed in subTerrain Magazine: “More than the story, it’s the cultural critique that fascinates and absorbs in this book. It’s a grim sketch of a world we’d rather not acknowledge, one that operates on models designed to maximize profits, not happiness . . . A brave and merciless exposé of what it’s like to be a young person today.”
In the midst of bad news on almost every side, it is so good to see splendid work duly rewarded. Actually, it is just good to be reminded that there are people of principle doing the hard work of writing and reflection.
Fantastic roundup of well-deserved recognition. The Gregg Barrios translation prize nomination really highlights how independent publishers are doing the heavy lifitng to bring non-English voices into circulation. I dunno if enough readers appreciate that without houses like Biblioasis taking those financial risks, we'd miss out on so many perspetives. A friend recently discovered Norwegian fiction through a similar press and it totally changed what she thought contemporary lit could be.