(Edmonton) University of Alberta Press books have been judged by their covers as part of the 2011 Alberta Book Publishing Awards, which saw the U of A Press lead the way with 13 nominations, including three of four nods in the book-cover category and a bid for publisher of the year.
The three U of A Press books in the Book Cover/Jacket Design category were all designed by the press' Alan Brownoff. The list includes Too Bad by Robert Kroetsch, The Measure of Paris by Stephen Scobie, and Will the Real Alberta Please Stand Up? by Geo Takach.
Brownoff was also nominated in the book design category for The Measure of Paris and Rudy Wiebe: Collected Stories, 1955-2010 by Rudy Wiebe.
U of A Press books also took three of four spots in the Scholarly and Academic Book Award category. The nominations included J.B. Harkin by E.J. (Ted) Hart, The Beginning of Print Culture in Athabasca Country by Patricia Demers, translated by Naomi McIlwraith and Dorothy Thunder, and "Collecting Stamps Would Have Been More Fun" by Stouck & Stouck, Eds.
Rounding out the U of A Press nominations were Rudy Wiebe: Collected Stories, 1955-2010 in the Trade Fiction Book Award category, The Measure of Paris and Myrna Kostash's Prodigal Daughter in the Trade Non-Fiction Book Award category, and Memory's Daughter by Alice Major is up for a Poetry Book Award.
"Our deep commitment to publishing books of excellence showed in the steady stream of design, content, and editorial awards our books and team members have garnered. Combined with the strength of our dedicated marketing team, there can be little doubt that the University of Alberta Press is a publisher par excellence," said Cathie Crooks, sales and marketing manager for the U of A Press. "We are particularly pleased to see the nomination for Publisher of the Year. 2010 saw the publication of some of the most ambitious printed books in the 41-year history of the University of Alberta Press."
The awards will be handed out June 11 in Calgary.