Award-winning books and publishing at the University of Regina

Posted: April 29, 2014 1:50 p.m.

Clearing the Plains by James Daschuk won four awards at the Saskatchewan Book Awards Photo courtesy of External Relations.

Kinesiology and Health Studies professor James Daschuk received four awards for his book, Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, at the 2014 Saskatchewan Book Awards held April 26 in Regina. The book, published by the University of Regina Press, won the University of Saskatchewan College of Arts & Science and Library Non-Fiction Award, the Drs. Morris & Jacqui Shumiatcher Regina Book Award, the National Bank Financial Wealth Management First Book Award, and the University of Regina Arts and Luther College Award for Scholarly Writing.

“This is my first book, so it was my first time attending the book awards,” says Daschuk. “I wasn’t expecting this, and I’m really happy to be recognized, obviously.”

National honours may be ahead for Clearing the Plains; it has been shortlisted for the Clio Award for Prairie History, the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize in Canadian History, and the Libris Award for non-fiction book of the year.

The University of Regina Press collected two awards. Clearing the Plains received the Publishing in Education Award from the University of Regina Faculty of Education and Campion College. As well, the University of Regina Press won the Ministry of Parks, Culture and Sport Publishing Award for Fists Upon A Star: A Memoir of Love, Theatre and Escape from McCarthyism by Florence Bean James with Jean Freeman.

The University of Regina Book of the Year Award went to Lisa Bird-Wilson of Saskatoon for her book Just Pretending, published by Coteau Books. The First Nations University of Canada Aboriginal Peoples' Publishing Award went to Coteau Books for Bird-Wilson’s Just Pretending.

The Saskatchewan Book Awards, established in 1993, recognize and celebrate excellence and diversity in Saskatchewan writing and publishing by promoting greater awareness of Saskatchewan books, authors, and publishers through its awards, public reading events, and other promotional initiatives.