The nominees for the 2025 Nova Scotia Book Awards were:
The winners are in bold.
Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction
Tammy Armstrong, Pearly Everlasting, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Charlene Carr, We Rip the World Apart, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Susan LeBlanc, The Nowhere Places, Nimbus Publishing & Vagrant Press
Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award
Martin Bauman, Hell of a Ride, Pottersfield Press
Andrea Currie, Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves, Arsenal Pulp Press
Dean Jobb, A Gentleman and a Thief, HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
George Borden Writing for Change Award
OmiSoore H. Dryden, Got Blood to Give: Anti-Black Homophobia in Blood Donation, Fernwood
Publishing
Darce Fardy*, Living With Dementia, Nimbus Publishing
Brenda J. Thompson, Enslavers of the Maritimes, Moose House Publications
*nominated posthumously
Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, Fiction
Jessica Ilse, The Majestic Sisters, Nimbus Publishing & Vagrant Press
Shawn Lawlor, Boom Road, Galleon Books
Susan LeBlanc, The Nowhere Places, Nimbus Publishing & Vagrant Press
Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, Non-Fiction
Martin Bauman, Hell of a Ride, Pottersfield Press
Bee Stanton, Atlantic Ghosts, Nimbus Publishing
Dr. Ron Stewart* with Jim Meek, Treat Them Where They Lie, Nimbus Publishing
*nominated posthumously
Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award
Alice Burdick, Ox Lost, Snow Deep, Anvil Press
Cory Lavender, Come One Thing Another, Gaspereau Press
Annick MacAskill, Votive, Gaspereau Press
Double Nominee! You read that right. The Nowhere Places by Susan LeBlanc has earned two nominations for Nova Scotia Book Awards!
2023 Nova Scotia Book Awards Shortlists
Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction
Bobbi French, The Good Women of Safe Harbour (HarperCollins)
Alexander MacLeod, Animal Person (McClelland & Stewart)
Jo Treggiari, Heartbreak Homes (Nimbus Publishing)
Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award
Kate Beaton, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Drawn & Quarterly)
El Jones, Abolitionist Intimacies (Fernwood Publishing)
Kim Pittaway & Toufah Jallow, Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement (Penguin Random House)
George Borden Writing for Change Award
El Jones, Abolitionist Intimacies (Fernwood Publishing)
Elder Sister Dorothy Moore, A Journey of Love and Hope (Nimbus Publishing)
Wanda Thomas Bernard, A Child of East Preston (Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute)
Margaret and John Savage First Book Award for Non-Fiction
Kate Beaton, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands (Drawn & Quarterly)
Martha Paynter, Abolition to Abortion (Fernwood Publishing)
Mandy Rennehan, The Blue Collar CEO (HarperCollins)
Maxine Tynes Nova Scotia Poetry Award
Sylvia D. Hamilton, Tender (Gaspereau Press)
Sue Goyette, Monoculture (Gaspereau Press)
Nanci Lee, Hsin (Brick Books)