Winners of “The Very Best!” Book Awards for 2021

The Miramichi Reader’s “The Very Best!” Book Awards are all new for 2021. Four categories, four winners and four honourable mentions. The winners were also selected by an external jury (aside from the Non-fiction category which was overseen by James). All judges expressed how hard it was to narrow each or their respective categories down to two, not to mention having to pick one winner. Congrats to all of the ‘chosen ones’ as well as the authors whose books appeared on the 2021 longlist.

Announcing “The Very Best!” Book Awards Longlist for 2021!

The Miramichi Reader’s popular “The Very Best!” Book Awards (“the Vee-Bahs”) are very different for 2021. To simplify things, we have only four categories: Novels, Non-Fiction, Short Fiction, and Poetry. From the following longlist, our jury (this is new, too!) will pare the nominees down to one winner and one honorable mention in each category. …

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2020 “The Very Best!” Book Awards: Best Fiction!

Fiction is undoubtedly the largest genre that gets reviewed here, so it was extremely difficult to narrow down the longlist to the shortlist, then to just three. Here are the three winners in the Fiction category! GOLD: The Tender Birds by Carole Giangrande (Inanna Publishing) SILVER: Lay Figures by Mark Blagrave (Nimbus Publishing) BRONZE: Some …

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2020 “The Very Best!” Book Awards: Best Non-Fiction

This year’s non-fiction finalists are a mix of a travelogue, a personal battle with PTSD and loss, and finding gratitude despite facing adversity. GOLD: Silver Linings by Janice Landry (Pottersfield Press) SILVER: Around The World In A Dugout Canoe by John M. MacFarlane and Lynn J. Salmon (Harbour Publishing) BRONZE: A Medic’s Mind by Matthew …

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2020 “The Very Best!” Book Awards: Best Historical Fiction Winners!

The Historical Fiction category returned in a big way after being absent in 2019. The winners here range from the British Home Child program to Black activism to a historical crime committed in rural Nova Scotia. As with the other categories, it was a shame that the well-stocked shortlist was made shorter! GOLD: The Forgotten …

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2020 “The Very Best!” Book Awards: Best Short Fiction Winners!

For 2019, there were only two short fiction books in this particular category, so we declared it a tie. This year, we were blessed with some of the best and imaginative short fiction to choose from. It is difficult to narrow down the shortlist of five titles to three. GOLD: Watermark by Christy Ann Conlin (Astoria, …

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2020: “The Very Best!” First Book Winners!

The “Best First Book” award goes to the first published book by an author. It can be either fiction or non-fiction. In their book, the author has demonstrated that their debut book is not a “one-off”. Indeed, the writing should be so good that the reader is eagerly anticipating their next effort. Here are the …

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Announcing the Complete 2020 “The Very Best!” Book Awards Shortlist!

The 2020 reading year was a little different this year at The Miramichi Reader. For the first part of the year, it contained reviews written by myself with the occasional guest post. Then, at the beginning of 2020, I made the major decision to expand the scope of the site beyond Eastern Canada, but in …

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2020 Shortlist: Best Historical Fiction!

The “Best Historical Fiction” category went missing last year for “The Very Best!” Book Awards, but it’s back and there were many good titles produced in this genre. Here are five of the best that were reviewed here at TMR: Of the above five titles, three will be awarded either gold, silver, or bronze award …

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2020 Shortlist: “The Very Best!”Short Fiction

Last year, the Best Short Fiction category sported a meagre two titles (mind you, they were excellent ones!) but 2020 proved to be more of a watershed year for good solid, short story collections. Even some ingenious flash fiction was thrown into the mix. Here are the five shortlisted titles for Best Short Fiction, in …

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