Recognition
2024 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show: Trade Typographic
Indigiqueerness
Joshua Whitehead, in dialogue with Angie Abdou
Interior and cover design by Natalie Olsen, KissCut Design
Interior artwork by Brnesh Berhe
Evolving from a conversation between Joshua Whitehead and Angie Abdou, Indigiqueerness is part dialogue, part collage, and part memoir. Beginning with memories of his childhood poetry and prose and travelling through the library of his life, Whitehead contemplates the role of theory, Indigenous language, queerness, and fantastical worlds in all his artistic pursuits. This volume is imbued with Whitehead’s energy and celebrates Indigenous writers and creators who defy expectations and transcend genres.
Award
Winner, 2023 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Memory and Landscape
edited by Kenneth L. Pratt and Scott A. Heyes
“A rich and beautiful book that tackles issues of great importance for many Northern communities: land and dispossession, tradition and change, memory and loss. With an impressive array of eminent scholars who seek to foreground Indigenous voices, this volume addresses the interplay of colonial pressure and Indigenous peoples’ resilience through topics ranging from berry picking and house forms to ecological knowledge and place naming.” —Peter Schweitzer, Professor of Anthropology, University of Vienna
Award
Winner, 2023 Book Design, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Memory and Landscape
edited by Kenneth L. Pratt and Scott A. Heyes
Interior design by Natalie Olsen, KissCut Design
Cover design by Marvin Harder
Memory and Landscape: Indigenous Responses to a Changing North explores the ways in which Indigenous peoples in the Arctic have adapted to challenging circumstances, including past cultural and environmental changes. In this beautifully illustrated volume, contributors document how Indigenous communities in Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and Siberia are seeking ways to maintain and strengthen their cultural identity while also embracing forces of disruption.
Shortlist
2023 Trade Fiction Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Grieving for Pigeons
Zubair Ahmad, translated by Anne Murphy
“The great strength of Grieving for Pigeons is its closeness to Zubair Ahmad’s original Punjabi. […] These stories transport the reader through a Lahore haunted by several periods of its recent history.” —Pasha Khan, McGill University
Shortlist
2023 Book Cover Design, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Little Wet-Paint Girl
Ouanessa Younsi, translated by Rebecca L. Thompson
Cover design by Natalie Olsen, Kisscut Design
Born to a French-Canadian mother and Algerian father, Ouanessa Younsi is a bold and unique voice in modern Francophone poetry. In this intensely personal recitation on identity and ethnicity, Younsi takes the reader on a surreal odyssey through a liminal world of belonging and unbelonging, absence and presence, mind and body. Her visionary work, first published in French and translated here by Rebecca Thompson, is unsettling, riveting and guaranteed to leave readers contemplating the existential mysteries of “self.”
Shortlist
2023 Book Cover Design, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Grieving for Pigeons
Zubair Ahmad, translated by Anne Murphy
Cover design by Natalie Olsen, KissCut Design
In this poignant and meditative collection of short stories, Zubair Ahmad captures the lives and experiences of the people of the Punjab, a region divided between India and Pakistan. In an intimate narrative style, Ahmad writes a world that hovers between memory and imagination, home and abroad.
Award
Winner, 2023 Society for Socialist Studies’ Errol Sharpe Book Prize
“Truth Behind Bars”
Paul Kellogg
From the jury: “An indispensable non-revential return to debates about the Russian Revolution and its aftermath. Kellogg’s argument ranges even farther, however, as a reflection on a political ethic grounded in this non-revential approach to history: one that acknowledges the profound impact of means on ends, the need to reckon with revolutionary politics without any alibis.”
Award
Winner, 2023 Independent Publisher Awards: Best Regional Non-Fiction
Under the Nakba Tree
Mowafa Said Househ
“More than simply a Muslim Canadian or Palestinian diasporic memoir, Househ’s biography is a quintessentially Canadian story that breathes life into the grand narrative of the nation. His moving prose provides a lucid guide through the turbulence of the last twenty years—from the 9/11 terror attacks to tumult in Palestine—harmonizing aspects of modern history often viewed as isolated and separate. The result is a masterful retelling of a modern history lost between the cracks.” —Khaled A. Beydoun, author of American Islamophobia: Understanding the Roots and Rise of Fear
Award
2022 Regional Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Bucking Conservatism
edited by Leon Crane Bear, Larry Hannant, and Karissa Robyn Patton
“Through a discussion of significant moments and important movements, such as Indigenous rights, gay rights, New Leftism, and the counterculture, Bucking Conservatism offers a thoughtful and nuanced reassessment of Alberta’s history and convincingly demonstrates that progressive politics helped shape the province in important ways. This book is a must-read for those interested in understanding the complex history of politics in Alberta.”
—Roberta Lexier, co-editor of Party of Conscience: The CCF, The NDP, and Social Democracy in Canada
Award
2022 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Regime of Obstruction
edited by William K. Carroll
“A remarkable volume that puts on display an impressive amount of empirical research—robust, rigorous, and multifaceted. The Corporate Mapping Project has clearly produced the kind of hard data on ownership structures and operations of capitalist class fractions that make it possible to see how power is actually wielded in the economy—and this is a rarity. Regime of Obstruction is a most important contribution to research and activism in the field of fossil fuels and climate change.”
—Andreas Malm, author of Fossil Capital
Shortlist
2022 Book Cover Design, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Plastic Legacies
edited by Trisia Farrelly, Sy Taffel, and Ian Shaw
Plastic Legacies brings together scholars from the fields of marine biology, psychology, anthropology, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, and media studies to investigate and address the urgent socio-ecological challenges brought about by plastics. Contributors consider the unpredictable nature of plastics and weigh actionable solutions and mitigation processes against the ever-changing situation. Moving beyond policy changes, this volume offers a critique of neoliberal approaches to tackling the plastics crisis and explores how politics and communicative action are key to implementing social, cultural, and economic change.
Shortlist
2022 Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Bucking Conservatism
edited by Leon Crane Bear, Larry Hannant, and Karissa Robyn Patton
“Bucking Conservatism is a welcome chinook of revisionist social and political history that will resonate with scholars, students, and readers. Beautifully written, bristling with verve, insight and political nuance, this anthology deserves a wide audience of readers.”
—Valerie Korinek, author of Prairie Fairies: A History of Queer Communities and People in Western Canada, 1930–1985
Shortlist
2022 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Education/Academic
25 Years of Ed Tech
Martin Weller
“There is no one better informed than Martin Weller to help guide readers through the complex landscape of ed tech. In 25 Years of Ed Tech, he provides steady intellectual guidance, based on personal experience. Weller is always focused on the learner, clearly detailing opportunities but also raising the alarm for undesirable implications of technology adoption in educational settings.”
—George Siemens, author of Knowing Knowledge
Shortlist
2021 INDIES Finalist, Political and Social Sciences (Adult Nonfiction)
Regime of Obstruction
edited by William K. Carroll
Anchored in sociological and political theory, this comprehensive volume provides hard data and empirical research that traces the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry through economics, politics, media, and higher education. Contributors demonstrate how corporations secure popular consent, and coopt, disorganize, or marginalize dissenting perspectives to position the fossil fuel industry as a national public good.
Shortlist
2022 Wallace K. Ferguson Book Prize
“Truth Behind Bars”
Paul Kellogg
Paul Kellogg uses the story of Vorkuta as a frame with which to re-assess the Russian Revolution. In particular, he turns to the contributions of Iulii Martov, a contemporary of Lenin, and his analysis of the central role played in the revolution by a temporary class of peasants-in-uniform. Kellogg explores the persistence and creativity of workers’ resistance in even the darkest hours of authoritarian repression and offers new perspectives on the failure of democratic governance after the Russian Revolution.
Recognition
Benetech-Global Certified Accessible™ Publisher
AU Press achieves Global Certified Accessible designation through eBOUND Canada’s Accessible Certification Program. Benetech’s GCA certification has an ambitious goal – to help publishers build born accessible content to ensure that everyone has equal access to materials critical for all readers and learners.
For a list of Global Certified Accessible publishers, click here
Recognition
25 Years of Ed Tech: The Serialized Audio Version
25 Years of Ed Tech
Martin Weller
OPEN REUSE / REMIX / ADAPTATION AWARD
An adaptation of Martin Weller’s 25 Years of Ed Tech book into a community audiobook, published in podcast form. Each chapter of the book has been read by a different member of the open education community and was released on a weekly schedule between November 2020 and May 2021. This project is an outstanding example of the power of OER reuse by remixing the physical book into an audiobook and increasing the accessibility by providing the text in an alternate format.
To learn more about this award, click here
Shortlist
2021 Learning Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
25 Years of Ed Tech
Martin Weller
In this lively and approachable volume based on his popular blog series, Martin Weller demonstrates a rich history of innovation and effective implementation of ed tech across higher education. From Bulletin Board Systems to blockchain, Weller follows the trajectory of education by focusing each chapter on a technology, theory, or concept that has influenced each year since 1994. Calling for both caution and enthusiasm, Weller advocates for a critical and research-based approach to new technologies, particularly in light of disinformation, the impact of social media on politics, and data surveillance trends. A concise and necessary retrospective, this book will be valuable to educators, ed tech practitioners, and higher education administrators, as well as students.
Shortlist
2021 Book Cover Design, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
The Virtues of Disillusionment
Steven Heighton
Most people go through life chasing illusions of success, fame, wealth, happiness, and few things are more painful than the reality-revealing loss of an illusion. But if illusions are negative, why is the opposite, being disillusioned, also negative? In this essay based on his inaugural writer-in-residence lecture at Athabasca University, internationally acclaimed writer Steven Heighton mathematically evaluates the paradox of disillusionment and the negative aspects of hope. Drawing on writers such as Herman Melville, Leonard Cohen, Kate Chopin, and Thich Nhat Hanh, Heighton considers the influence of illusions on creativity, art, and society. This meditation on language and philosophy reveals the virtues of being disillusioned and, perhaps, the path to freedom.
Shortlist
2021 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
The Art of Communication in a Polarized World
Kyle Conway
Author Kyle Conway from the University of Ottawa confronts the communication challenges of our modern world by navigating the space between opposing perspectives. Drawing on the theory of cultural translation and its dimensions of power, meaning, and invention, The Art of Communication in a Polarized World serves to deepen our understanding of what it means to communicate and opens the door to new approaches to politics and ethics.
Shortlist
Archibald Lampman Award
From Turtle Island to Gaza
David Groulx
The jury writes that “Groulx’s collection articulates the ‘long execution’ shared by the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and Palestinians in Gaza. These to-the-bone, potent poems sing the pain of ‘the settlers / live there now / painting pictures / writing stories / our lives are / silent’; the persistent, violent irony that ‘[w]e have become aliens / strangers / outsiders / foreigners / unknown / in our own land / other.’ There is, also, a reminder for tender resiliency: ‘When we speak of freedom / we must also speak of our freedom / to be kind / to be just / and to be in love.’ From Turtle Island to Gaza knows that the colonial experience is a global one. Groulx’s hope, that through these poems ‘we find that we, colonized peoples, are not alone,’ is very well-met.”
Shortlist
2020 Children’s and Young Adult Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
The Law Is (Not) for Kids
Ned Lecic and Marvin A. Zuker
The Law Is (Not) for Kids: A Legal Rights Guide for Canadian Children and Teens by Ned Lecic and Marvin Zuker is the first handbook on Canadian law written specifically for kids and teens. Intended to educate and empower children and youth by teaching them their legal rights and responsibilities, this indispensable guide will help kids make informed decisions and learn how to advocate for themselves.
Recognition
Special Acknowledgement, Wilson Institute Book Prize
An Ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land
Jennifer S. H. Brown
The jury appreciated Jennifer Brown’s unique approach. Brown revisits old articles, book chapters, and talks – some unpublished – and provides further context and insight for each. The jury noted that we all evolve as historians and it is appreciated when academics reassess and critique their past work.
Recognition
Honourable Mention, 2019 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
American Labour’s Cold War Abroad
Anthony Carew
The jury noted that this “remarkably researched book” will be a “landmark reference for years to come,” and has the potential to transcend the scholarly community.
Shortlist
2019 Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
What We Are When We Are
Cvetka Lipuš, translated by Tom Priestly
Working within a postmodern style, this rhythmic and melodious bilingual collection of poems originally written in Slovenian by Cvetka Lipuš and translated here by Tom Priestly, blends the real with the surreal, dull urban lives with dreams.
Award
Winner, 2019 Marshall McLuhan Award for Outstanding Book in the Field of Media Ecology
The Medium Is the Monster
Mark A. McCutcheon
“From dance culture to scifi to Big Oil, Mark McCutcheon traces the McLuhanesque Frankenphemes of technological monstrosity—and their threat of future mischief—with an intensity that won’t let you put this book down.” —Richard Cavell, author of Remediating McLuhan
Presenter
2019 Eden Mills Writers’ Festival
Shape Your Eyes by Shutting Them
poems by Mark A. McCutcheon
Mark McCutcheon was invited to read from his debut collection of poetry, Shape Your Eyes By Shutting Them. McCutcheon read at The Fringe event alongside Anushka Ataullahjan, Dave Gregory, Liz Koblyk, Alison Stevenson, and Linda Walsh.
Shortlist
2019 Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Amma’s Daughters
Meenal Shrivastava
This richly detailed re-memory uncovers the history of the female foot soldiers of Gandhi’s national movement. Using her grandmother’s 1962 autobiography as a foundation, Meenal Shrivastava reclaims an important part of India’s history and gives voice and honour to the thousands of largely forgotten or unacknowledged women who, threatened with imprisonment, relentlessly and selflessly gave toward the revolution.
Presenter
2019 Victoria Festival of Authors
Amma’s Daughters
Meenal Shrivastava
Meenal Shrivastava was invited to the Victoria Festival of Authors to speak about her memoir, Amma’s Daughters. Shrivastava spoke on a panel with Carla Funk, Yasuko Thanh, and Samra Zafar about the challenges and inspiration behind their memoirs.
Award
Winner, 2018 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Alberta’s Lower Athabasca Basin
edited by Brian M. Ronaghan
The jury noted that it was a miracle of editing for this title to be so accessible to the general public and noted the difficulty in delivering such a consistent quality throughout the book. They commented that the marketing and launch were very well thought out and executed well. Their final remarks were that Alberta’s Lower Athabasca Basin is clearly in a league of its own, the scope of the project is impressive, and it will be a landmark book in its field as a reference work as well as a scholarly work.
Recognition
Honourable Mention, 2018 Council on Museum Anthropology Book Award
Visiting With the Ancestors
Laura Peers and Alison K. Brown
In the pages of this beautifully illustrated volume is the story of an effort to build a bridge between museums and source communities, in hopes of establishing stronger, more sustaining relationships between the two and spurring change in prevailing museum policies.
Recognition
The 2018 Hill Times’ 100 Best Political, History, Public Policy Books
Small Cities, Big Issues
edited by Christopher Walmsley and Terry Kading
The Hill Times is an Ottawa-based newsweekly that covers Canada’s politics and government and a must-read for political insiders. Small Cities, Big Issues looks at the effects of neoliberal policies on Canadian municipalities and argues that small cities can succeed in reconceiving community based on the ideals of acceptance, accommodation, and inclusion.
Recognition
Grant Recipient, 2018 Manifold Pilot Project
Manifold is an open-source, mobile-friendly publishing platform that allows publishers to include archival documents, audio and video, and other elements into their publications, in addition to offering readers and users the opportunity to annotate, share, and comment. AU Press was selected as one of only ten organizations to receive a two-day, on-site training session, support for setting up a branded Manifold instance, and instruction on how to use Manifold to publish materials.
Award
Winner, 2017 AECT Division of Distance Learning Awards: Distance Education Book
Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning
edited by George Veletsianos
Emergence and Innovation in Digital Learning analyzes the application of the latest technologies in both traditional and online universities. Edited by George Veletsianos, the Canada Research Chair in Innovative Learning and Technology, this collection is essential for understanding the changes occurring in the world of education delivery.
Award
Winner, 2017 Independent Publisher Awards: Best Regional Non-Fiction
My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell
Arthur Bear Chief
My Decade at Old Sun, My Lifetime of Hell is an outspoken account of the sexual and psychological abuse that Arthur Bear Chief suffered during his time at Old Sun Residential school in Gleichen on the Siksika Nation.
Recognition
2017 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Show: Cover Design
Without Apology
edited by Shannon Stettner
Cover design by Marvin Harder. Harder notes that he wanted this cover to be strong, bright, and confident despite the somewhat sensitive nature of the subject matter. The image was selected from the visual material provided.
Shortlist
2017 Alberta Book Publishing Awards, Book Design
Visiting With the Ancestors
Laura Peers and Alison K. Brown
Recognition
The 2017 Hill Times’ 100 Best Political, History, Public Policy Books
Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada
edited by Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick
The Hill Times is an Ottawa-based newsweekly that covers Canada’s politics and government and a must-read for political insiders. Many Athabasca University faculty members contributed a chapter to this book including Bob Barnetson, Joshua Evans, Jason Foster, Joy Fraser, Paul Kellogg, Manijeh Mannani, Jay Smith, and Karen Wall.
Award
Winner, 2016 Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Alberta Oil and the Decline of Democracy in Canada
edited by Meenal Shrivastava and Lorna Stefanick
Shortlist
2016 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
We Are Coming Home
edited by Gerald T. Conaty
Award
Winner, 2015 Alberta Book Publishing Awards, Book Design
Film and the City
George Melnyk
Award
Winner, 2015 Alberta Book Publishing Awards, Book Cover/Jacket Design
Film and the City
George Melnyk
Recognition
2014 AAUP Book Jacket and Journal Show: Trade Typographic – Book
Film and the City
George Melnyk
Award
Winner, 2014 Alberta Book Publishing Awards, Book Cover/Jacket Design
The Wages of Relief
Eric Strikwerda
Award
Winner, 2014 Lois Hole Award for Editorial Excellence, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Xwelíqwiya
Rena Point Bolton and Richard Daly
Shortlist
Finalist, 2014 Canada Prize in the Humanities, Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Imperfection
Patrick Grant
Award
Winner, 2014 Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book Award
Sociocultural Systems
Frank W. Elwell
Recognition
2013 AAUP Book Jacket and Journal Show: Scholarly Typographic – Book
Hard Time
Ted McCoy
Shortlist
Runner-up, 2013 Canadian Authors Association Exporting Alberta Award
Man Proposes, God Disposes
Pierre Maturié, translated by Vivien Bosley
Recognition
Honourable Mention, 2013 Canadian Authors Association Exporting Alberta Award
Reel Time
Robert M. Seiler and Tamara P. Seiler
Shortlist
2012 Canadian Aboriginal History Book Prize, Canadian Historical Association
Goodlands
Frances W. Kaye
Award
Winner, 2012 Canadian Aboriginal History Book Prize, Canadian Historical Association
Recollecting
edited by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
Award
Winner, 2012 Willa Literary Award for Scholarly Non-Fiction
Recollecting
edited by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
Shortlist
2012 Margaret McWilliams Award (Scholarly History), Manitoba Historical Society
Recollecting
edited by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
Award
Winner, 2012 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Recollecting
edited by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
Award
Winner, 2012 Armitage-Jameson Prize for Western Women’s History
Recollecting
edited by Sarah Carter and Patricia A. McCormack
Award
Winner, 2011 Charles A. Wedemeyer Award (Research & Publication)
Accessible Elements
edited by Dietmar Kennepohl and Lawton Shaw
Award
Winner, 2011 Felicia A. Holton Book Award, Archaeological Institute of America
Imagining Head-Smashed-In
Jack W. Brink
Award
Winner, 2011 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction
Letters from the Lost
Helen Waldstein Wilkes
Award
Winner, 2011 Alberta Readers’ Choice Awards
Letters from the Lost
Helen Waldstein Wilkes
Champion comments: “This is a very moving story about the holocaust, immigration to Canada, denial, survival and guilt. Helen Wilkes fled Czechoslovakia with her parents in 1939 at the age of two. At the age of sixty, she finally opened her father’s red Eaton’s box full of letters from family in Europe. She discovered a family she never knew, never talked about, and a history of daily life under the Nazis. Translating the letters was not enough, so she embarked on a journey back to Europe to piece together the family history and learn about her grandparents, her aunties, uncles and cousins, and what happened to each of them. It is a rather unique approach to the telling of a holocaust story.”
Recognition
2011, AAUP Book Jacket and Journal Show: Covers and Trade Typographic
Roy & Me
Maurice Yacowar
Shortlist
2011 Book Cover/Jacket Design Award, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
Roy & Me
Maurice Yacowar
Shortlist
2011 Margaret McWilliams Award (Scholarly History), Manitoba Historical Society
The West and Beyond
edited by Alvin Finkel, Sarah Carter, and Peter Fortna
Award
Winner, 2010 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction
A Very Capable Life
John Leigh Walters
Award
Winner, 2009 Public Communications Award, Canadian Archaeological Association
Imagining Head-Smashed-In
Jack W. Brink
Award
Winner, 2009 Best Archaeology Book, Society for American Archaeology
Imagining Head-Smashed-In
Jack W. Brink
Award
Winner, 2009 Charles A. Wedemeyer Award
The Theory and Practice of Online Learning
edited by Terry Anderson
Award
Winner, 2009 Clio, Regional History, Canadian Historical Association
The Importance of Being Monogamous
Sarah Carter
Award
Winner, 2009 Scholarly and Academic Book of the Year, Alberta Book Publishing Awards
The Importance of Being Monogamous
Sarah Carter
Award
Winner, 2008 Margaret McWilliams Award for Scholarly History
The Importance of Being Monogamous
Sarah Carter