Alberta Readers' Choice Award

About the 2010 Alberta Readers' Choice Awards

Overview

The Alberta Readers' Choice Award (ARC) is an annual award for adult fiction and narrative non-fiction titles. Narrative non-fiction is defined as a work of non-fiction which lends itself to a public reading.

Exclusions
Reference and magazine works will not eligible to receive the award

Criteria:
1. The work must have a broad appeal to the Alberta reading public
2. Titles must be published between January 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009
3. Titles must be published by an Alberta based publishing house
4. Only print works in a book format will be eligible
Works must be published by an Alberta-based publishing house. An Alberta-based publishing house is defined as an enterprise in which:
1. The principal business is book publishing
2. The head office is located in Alberta
3. Editorial control is exercised by officers of the company based in Alberta
4. The majority of its employees are based in Alberta
Exclusions
Self-published works not eligible for the award

Prize

A $10,000 prize will be awarded to the winning author.

Comparable National Awards
Governor-General's Literary Award for Fiction - $10,000
Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour - $10,000
Trillium Book Award for Poetry - $10,000

Comparable Provincial Awards
City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize - $5,000
City of Edmonton Book Prize - $2000
Alberta Literary Awards (Writer's Guild of Alberta) - $1500 each

Juried Process

September 2009 - Library participation
Alberta libraries were approached to select favored titles from eligible titles submitted by Alberta publishers. A short list of 10 titles has been selected.

Exclusions
None - all libraries were encouraged to participate.

December 2009-February 2010 - Juror participation
Noted Albertans will be invited to define a final list of five (5) titles.
Jurors have not yet been finalized. Will be chosen by December 2009.

February-May 2010 - Public participation
Albertans will have the opportunity to vote on a favorite title from amongst the final list of five (5).

Award Presentation

May 2010

A $10,000 prize will be awarded to the author of the winning, Alberta published title.

The recipient of the award will be announced at the 2010 Alberta Book Publishing Awards Gala event in Edmonton.

The Alberta Readers' Choice Award is sponsored by the Edmonton Public Library (EPL), with the EPL and the Book Publishers Association of Alberta (BPAA) partnering to organize and facilitate the award.