Release Date: December 1, 2003
Media Contact: James Duggleby
E-mail: james.duggleby@uregina.ca
Phone: (306) 585-4683
Fax: (306) 585-4997
CPRC press wins 2003 Saskatchewan Book Award for publishing
Canadian Plains Research Centre's (CPRC) was awarded the 2003 Award for Publishing at the Eleventh Annual Saskatchewan Book Awards held Nov. 29, 2003 at the Centre of the Arts in Regina.

The award recognizes the Centre's work in publishing Building for the Future, written by Gordon Barnhart. Among the five publishers nominated in this prestigious category, the jurors found CPRC's book displayed "...high production values as well as excellent content and design. Barnhart's knowledge of the building of Saskatchewan's Legislature, happy memories, and sense of pride shine through, and he achieves a grand vision of a majestic building in a majestic land." 

Barnhart, University secretary at the University of Saskatchewan, previously wrote Peace, Progress and Prosperity: A Biography of Saskatchewan's First Premier, T. Walter Scott, also published by CPRC, and is currently editing a book on Saskatchewan's premiers in the 20th century, to be published by CPRC in early 2004. 

In accepting the award on behalf of the CPRC Press, David Gauthier, CPRC's executive director, praised the collaborative team effort shown by CPRC staff and the author in bringing this important book to completion. In particular, Brian Mlazgar, CPRC's publications co-ordinator, Donna Achtzehner, layout and design, and David McLennan, photo selection and layout, were instrumental in achieving the award-winning vision for this book. On behalf of all of the publishers nominated for this award, Dr. Gauthier thanked Saskatchewan Culture, Youth and Recreation for its sponsorship of the award. He also acknowledged with great appreciation the long-term and ongoing support of the University of Regina for scholarly publishing in Saskatchewan.

This is the second year in a row that CPRC Press has won the Award for Publishing. CPRC received the award in 2002 for Their Names Live On (by Doug Chisholm and Gerry Hill). In 2002, CPRC also published Canoeing the Churchill (by Greg Marchildon and Sid Robinson) which won the Award for Scholarly. In 1999, CPRC Press won the Publishing in Education Award for Messages from the Real World (by Ted Godwin). 

Building for the Future, was one of three CPRC books were nominated for 2003 awards in different categories: 

Publishing in Education: A Prairie Memoir, edited by S.D. Hanson, details the reminiscences of James Clinskill, who moved from Scotland in 1882. His memoirs reveal the excitement of the early 1900s, a time of enormous development on the prairies. Building for the Future was also nominated in this category. 

Regina Book Award and Fiction Award categories: Dancing in Poppies, by Gail Bowen and Ron Marken, a passionate anti-war play set during World War I. The action is heartfelt and plainspoken, a close-up examination of small-town Saskatchewan people whose lives are irrevocably changed by war. 

Scholarly Writing: Saskatchewan Communities in the 21st Century, by Jack Stabler and Rose Olfert, which follows the evolving community from village to rural trade centre regions, focusing on creating efficient governmental jurisdictions and institutions so essential in rural Saskatchewan.