On the morning of 6 December 1917, the French cargo ship SS Mont-Blanc collided with the Norwegian vessel SS Imo in the harbour of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The Mont-Blanc, laden with high explosives, caught fire and exploded, devastating the Richmond district of Halifax. At least 1,782 people were killed, largely in Halifax and Dartmouth, by the blast, debris, fires, or collapsed buildings, and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest human-made explosion at the time. It released the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT (12 TJ).
The City of Vancouver Book Award is a Canadian literary award, that has been presented annually by the city of Vancouver, British Columbia to one or more works of literature judged as the year's best fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama work about the city.
The Governor General's Award for English-language children's writing is a Canadian literary award that annually recognizes one Canadian writer for a children's book written in English. It is one of four children's book awards among the Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit, one each for writers and illustrators of English- and French-language books. The Governor General's Awards program is administered by the Canada Council.
Quill & Quire is a Canadian magazine about the book and publishing industry. The magazine was launched in 1935 and has an average circulation of 5,000 copies per issue, with a publisher-claimed readership of 25,000. Quill & Quire reviews books and magazines and provides a forum for discussion of trends in the publishing industry. The publication is considered a significant source of short reviews for new Canadian books.
Dundurn Press is one of the largest Canadian-owned book publishing companies of adult and children's fiction and non-fiction. The company publishes Canadian literature, history, biography, politics and arts. Dundurn has about 2500 books in print, and averages around one hundred new titles each year. Dundurn Press was established in 1972 by Kirk Howard. In 2009, Dundurn forged a co-publishing partnership with the Ontario Genealogical Society, and in 2011, Dundurn purchased Napoleon & Company and Blue Butterfly Books. In 2013, Dundurn acquired Thomas Allen Publishers, the publishing branch of Thomas Allen & Son Limited. Thomas Allen & Son Limited is a Canadian book distributor, and remains Canada's oldest family-owned and operated distributor, having been in continuous operation for over 90 years. Dundurn Press authors include Lincoln Alexander, Linda McQuaig, Ted Barris, Michael Coren, Xue Yiwei, and Austin Clarke.
The Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, established in 1985 as one of the BC and Yukon Book Prizes, is awarded annually to the best work of fiction by a resident of British Columbia, Canada.
Marie-Louise Gay is a Canadian children's writer and illustrator. She has received numerous awards for her written and illustrated works in both French and English, including the 2005 Vicky Metcalf Award, multiple Governor General's Awards, and multiple Janet Savage Blachford Prizes, among others.
Vivek Shraya is a Canadian musician, writer, and visual artist. She currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, where she is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at the University of Calgary. As a trans woman of colour, Shraya often incorporates her identity in her music, writing, visual art, theatrical work, and films. She is a seven-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, and considered a Great Canadian Filmmaker of the Future by CBC Arts.
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery is a 1989 Canadian non-fiction book by Janet Kitz describing the experience of the Halifax Explosion with an emphasis on the experience of ordinary people and families who became victims or survivors of the 1917 munitions explosion in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The book broke new ground, making extensive use of oral history interviews conducted by Janet Kitz to tell previously unknown stories from the event, illustrated by documents and photographs collected by the author as well as images and artifacts from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. The first book published in many years about the explosion, it broke the record for the largest number of books ever sold at a book launch in Nova Scotia and has been credited as creating a renaissance in published accounts about the 1917 disaster. The book has been reprinted several times and has remained a definitive account of the disaster which has influenced numerous works that have followed. Janet Kitz went on to write two follow-up books: Survivors: Children of the Halifax Explosion (2000) which explored in more detail the stories of children who survived and December 1917: Revisiting the Halifax Explosion (2006) with Joan Payzant which looked at the impact of the explosion on the landscape of Halifax and Dartmouth.
The Quebec Writers' Federation Awards are a series of Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the Quebec Writers' Federation to the best works of literature in English by writers from Quebec. They were known from 1988 to 1998 as the QSPELL Awards.
SSMont-Blanc was a cargo steamship that was built in Middlesbrough, England in 1899 for a French shipping company. On Thursday morning, December 6, 1917, she entered Halifax Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada laden with a full cargo of highly volatile explosives. As she made her way through the Narrows towards Bedford Basin, she was involved in a collision with Imo, a Norwegian ship. A fire aboard the French ship ignited her cargo of wet and dry 2,300 tons of picric acid, 500 tons of TNT, and 10 tons of guncotton. The resultant Halifax Explosion killed approximately 2,000 people and injured about 9,000.
Frontenac House is an independent publishing house located in Okotoks, Alberta, Canada, founded in 2000 by Rose and David Scollard. The publishing house focuses on poetry, but has reached into other genres as well, including fiction, photography, Children/YA books, and non-fiction. Since its founding in 2000, the press has published over 120 original titles.
The Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize is awarded annually as the BC Book Prize for the best juvenile or young adult novel or work of non-fiction by a resident of British Columbia or the Yukon, Canada. It was first awarded in 1987. It is supported by the B.C Library Association.
Atlantic Canada's 100 Greatest Books is a non-fiction book by Trevor J. Adams and Stephen Patrick Clare, published by Nimbus Publishing. The first book of its type, it ranks and reviews the top 100 books written by Atlantic Canadian writers, published in the region, or focusing on the region. The 100 books chosen were selected from a list of over 2,000 titles voted on by over 700 authors, editors and critics. The book includes reviews of each of the ranked titles, top-ten lists on a variety of literary subjects, and lists from guest contributors such as the premiers of the Maritime Provinces and novelists such as David Adams Richards and Ami MacKay.
Rakuten Kobo Inc., or simply Kobo, is a Canadian company that sells ebooks, audiobooks, ereaders and tablet computers. It is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and is a subsidiary of the Japanese ecommerce conglomerate Rakuten. The name Kobo is an anagram of book.
Taras Grescoe is a Canadian non-fiction writer. His debut book, Sacré Blues, won the Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction, and McAuslan First Book Prize. His fourth book, Bottomfeeder, won the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
The Highway Book Shop was a bookstore and publishing company, located on Ontario Highway 11 near Cobalt, Ontario, which operated from 1957 to 2011. Considered a landmark and cultural institution in the region, it was one of the largest and most famous independent bookstores in Canada.
Sydney Smith is a Canadian illustrator of children's books. He was awarded the 2015 Governor General’s Award For Illustrated Children’s Books for Sidewalk Flowers, a wordless picture book which he illustrated with author JonArno Lawson. He currently resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Anne Emery is a Canadian writer of murder mystery novels and a lawyer. Emery has been awarded the 2019 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel, silver medal in the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards, and the 2007 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. In 2023, Emery's novel Fenian Street was shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery. She has published twelve novels in her Collins-Burke mystery series, which features Monty Collins, a Hallifax lawyer, and Father Brennan Burke, a Catholic priest and choirmaster, and a stand-alone novel.
David Huebert is a Canadian writer from Halifax, Nova Scotia.
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