A panel of five guest jurors have come together to determine which five titles will vie for the 2010 Alberta Readers' Choice Award. Each juror will select one book to champion and the final five titles will be voted on by you the readers beginning in March 2010 until a winner is announced at the Book Publishers Association of Alberta Gala Awards Ceremony on May 14, 2010.
 | | Hon. Tommy Banks
Following a fifty-year international career as a musician, Tommy Banks was summoned to the Senate of Canada on April 7, 2000. In the Senate, he has served as a member of the Standing Committee on National Finance, the Special Committee on Illegal Drugs, and the Standing Committee on National Security and Defence. Senator Banks was elected Chair of the Standing Committee on Energy, the Environment, and Natural Resources from 2002 to 2009, and he has served as Chairman of the Alberta Liberal Parliamentary Caucus.
Senator Banks' was born in Calgary, but moved to Edmonton in 1949. Prior to being appointed to the Senate, he was best known as a pianist, conductor, arranger, composer, and television personality. From 1968 until 1983, Senator Banks hosted The Tommy Banks Show on CBC Television. In 1991, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence in 1993. |
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 | | Laurie Greenwood
Life-long Edmontonian Laurie Greenwood has been in the book business for over 30 years. An avid reader all her life, she, with her family, became co-owners of Greenwoods' Bookshoppe in 1979. In 2008 she created Laurie's Book Company whose primary focus is the advocacy of literacy, authors and publishing in Alberta and Canada.
Laurie is involved in all aspects of the book business from being a bookseller, jury member of numerous arts organizations provincially and nationally and a weekly book columnist with CBC Radio and Global TV.
In 2008 Laurie was shortlisted for the Grant MacEwan Literary Arts Award for her contributions to literature in Alberta. |
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 | | Fil Fraser
Fil Fraser has been a life-long broadcaster, journalist, television program director and CEO, and a television and feature film producer. Based in Edmonton he is the author of the best-selling memoir, Alberta's Camelot - Culture and the Arts in the Lougheed Years and Running Uphill - the Fast, Short Life of Harry Jerome, a biography of the Canadian Olympic sprinter, soon to be a feature documentary film produced by the National Film Board.
Fil is an adjunct professor of Communications Studies at Athabasca University, Canada's pioneering distance learning institution where he teaches a graduate course on film policy. He is a former Chief Commissioner of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, and the former CEO of Vision TV. |
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 | | Morris Flewwelling
Morris Flewwelling is from small town Alberta. A graduate of the University of Alberta (Education, 1964), Morris' career included twenty years teaching in regular and Special Education settings as well as twenty years working in museums and heritage.
Following retirement in 1996, Morris was re-elected to City Council in Red Deer. In 2004 he was elected Mayor. Throughout his years in Red Deer, Morris has been a leader in many arts, education, community development and heritage preservation endeavours. Morris has received many honors for his professional and volunteer commitments.
Morris enjoys art and antiques, cooking, gardening and horses. |
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 | | Simone Lee
Simone Lee is co-owner of Pages Books on Kensington, "Calgary's Literary Meeting Place," where she organizes and hosts over 150 events each year for authors from across Alberta, Canada, and the world. She loves to discover new writers and books, and to "tell the world" about them, and is now very happy to have the direct connection with readers through her customers at Pages.
Prior to Simone's return to Calgary, she worked in marketing at several major publishers in Toronto, and was President of the Book Promoters' Association of Canada. She has served on juries and award committees for literary organizations, and was a board member of Calgary's Word on the Street.
Simone lives in Calgary with her husband and two young children: Julia and Theodore. |
