Just in time for summer reading, the City of Toronto and Toronto Public Library have named the 12 books longlisted for the 2019 Toronto Book Awards. Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the awards honour books of literary merit that are evocative of Toronto.
The titles selected for the 2019 longlist are:
• Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (Harper Avenue)
• Be With: Letters to a Caregiver by Mike Barnes (Biblioasis)
• Building Resistance: Children, Tuberculosis, and the Toronto Sanatorium by Stacie Burke (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
• Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada’s Chinese Restaurants by Ann Hui (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis (Harper Collins)
• Late Breaking by KD Miller (Biblioasis)
• Reproduction by Ian Williams (Random House Canada)
• The Student by Cary Fagan (Freehand Books)
• The Ward Uncovered: The Archaeology of Everyday Life edited by John Lorinc, Holly Martelle and Michael McClelland (Coach House Books)
• Theory by Dionne Brand (Knopf Canada)
• They Call Me George: The Untold Story of Black Train Porters and the Birth of Modern Canada by Cecil Foster (Biblioasis)
• This Country of Mine by Didier Leclair (Deux Voiliers Publishing)
The shortlist for the 2019 Toronto Book Awards will be announced on August 15 and the winner will be announced on October 2 at the annual event at the Toronto Reference Library. Members of the public are welcome to attend the awards at the Bram and Bluma Appel Salon starting at 7 p.m. Tickets are free and will be available at http://www.tpl.ca/appelsalon/ in September.
This is the 45th year of the Toronto Book Awards. The annual awards offer $15,000 in prize money. Each shortlisted finalist will receive $1,000, with $10,000 going to the winner. This year’s Toronto Book Awards Committee is comprised of volunteer members Sarah Hagi, Canisia Lubrin, Vicky Mochama, Damian Tarnopolsky, and Daniel Viola.
More information about the awards and related programming is available at http://www.toronto.ca/book_awards and on Twitter at @TOBookAwards and #tobookawards. The Toronto Star is the Toronto Book Awards’ media sponsor.
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“My sincerest congratulations to the authors and editors included in the 2019 Toronto Book Awards longlist. I encourage people to dive into reading these titles and enjoy the incredible range of stories that our city inspires.”
– Mayor John Tory
Toronto Public Library is the world’s busiest urban public library system. Every year, more than 19 million people visit library branches in neighbourhoods across the city and borrow more than 33 million items. To learn more about Toronto Public Library, visit the website at http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/ or call Answerline at 416-393-7131. For all the latest buzz about the library, follow @torontolibrary on Twitter.
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