Centretown author Jamieson Findlay at the Ottawa Book Awards.
Centretown author Jamieson Findlay has won the Ottawa Book Award for English Fiction with his novel The Summer of Permanent Wants, beating out bestseller Elizabeth Hay.
The awards were announced on Wednesday evening and came with a $7,500 prize for each winner of the English fiction, French fiction and English non-fiction categories.
“I’m very excited,” Findlay said. “I mean, it was a pretty high-powered list of finalists. I just didn’t think I would figure at all, so I’m very happy.”
Findlay said he is a big admirer of fellow finalists Hay and Alan Cumyn and he even bought Cumyn’s book after the ceremony.
Historian Charlotte Gray and Radio-Canada cultural reporter Martin Varnasse hosted the ceremony at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Orleans, where Mayor Jim Watson presented Findlay with his award.
Estelle Beauchamp won for French fiction with Un Souffle Venu de Loin while the award for English non-fiction went to Ruth Phillips for Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums. An additional $1,500 prize went to Michael Blouin, who won the Archibald Lampman Award for Poetry with his collection of narrative poems titled Wore Down Trust.
Thirteen authors were nominated as finalists for the book awards, including two more Centretown residents, Shane Rhodes for Err and Damien-Claude Belanger for Prejudice and Pride: Canadian Intellectuals Confront the United States, 1891-1945.
“There are many venerate Ottawa writers and Canadian writers up for the award,” Rhodes said before the winners were announced. “I myself am just honoured to be among their presence.”
Findlay’s winning novel follows an 11-year-old girl named Emmeline who loses her voice due to a mysterious illness. She then takes a journey with her grandmother down the Rideau Canal in a boat called Permanent Wants that doubles as a bookstore.
“The Ottawa Book Awards is a reminder that we don’t have to look very far to find world-class talent,” Mayor Watson said during his opening address.
Watson received much applause when he also told the audience that city council will be adding an additional $1.25 million in new capital and operating funds for arts, culture and heritage with the 2013 budget.