By Tyler Hyde*

Once again, McGill University Library is proud to be hosting the international exhibition of the winning books of the 2014 Alcuin Society Book Design Awards, on display in the McLennan Library Building lobby for the month of July.

These books have been carefully selected by the Alcuin Society as this year’s best and most beautifully produced Canadian publications. If you would like to get up close and personal with some of these books we encourage you to explore the following titles, available from the McGill Library collection:

For the young, or young at heart, you may want to spend some time with How To and Wild Berries, which took first and third prize for children’s book design. Also don’t forget to check out honourable mention, Little You.

If you love art, you will love the whimsical works of Mélanie Rocan: Souvenir involontaire. This second prize winner for pictorial design is a beauty to behold. So too is honourable mention, Irene F. Whittome: Room 901, which will inspire anyone stuck in a creative rut.

Another visual delight is the second place winner for prose non-fiction illustrated, The Seghers Collection: Old Books for a New World. This book is a must see for anyone with an interest in religious studies.

If you’re in for a deeper read, check out these other non-fiction titles: Jeremiah Bancroft at Fort Beauséjour & Grand-Pré, first prize winner, and Métis in Canada and The Writing Life: Journals, 1975-2005, which tied for third prize. If you are a serious book lover, honourable mention, The Pope’s Bookbinder, should not be overlooked.

Second prize winner for fiction, Petriot, blends fact and fiction through the eyes of Marcus, a teacher in a Northern-Canadian native community, and his relationship with the writings of real life missionary, Émile Petitot. Moving from the north, experience life on the Eastern shores in the short stories that comprise Someone Somewhere, third prize winner, and honourable mention, Son of a Certain Woman.

Finally, go west and learn all about the architecture of Vancouver in this aptly named book, Exploring Vancouver: the Architectural Guide, which holds the second prize in the reference category of the 2014 Alcuin Society Book Design Awards.

For more information on the Alcuin Society, and on the international circulation of this exhibition, visit www.alcuinsociety.com

Continue reading for a full, categorized list of the 2014 award winners; including links to the books on loan at McGill.

Children

First prize: ROBIN MITCHELL CRANFIELD | designer of How To, by Julie Morstad (Simply Read Books);

Second prize: NAOMI MACDOUGALL | designer of Murilla Gorilla, Jungle Detective, by Jennifer Lloyd (Simply Read Books);

Third prize (tie): ROBIN MITCHELL CRANFIELD | designer of Wild Berries, by Julie Flett (Simply Read Books);

Third prize (tie): WINNIE MA | designer of Circles of Round, by Signe Sturup (Simply Read Books);

Honourable mentions:
TERESA BUBELA & JULIE FLETT | designers of Little You, by Richard Van Camp (Orca Book Publishers),
MICHAEL SOLOMON | designer of Out the Window, by Cybèle Young (Groundwood Books).

Limited Editions

First prize: MICHAEL TOROSIAN | designer of Black Star, by Michael Torosian & Peter Higdon (Lumiere Press);

Second prize (tie): WILLIAM RUETER | designer of Pressing Matters, by Leonard F. Bahr, Paul Hayden Duensing, Rollin Milroy, & William Rueter (The Aliquando Press);

Second prize (tie): JUDITH POIRIER | designer of Résidus visuels, by Johanne Jarry (La chose imprimée);

Third prize (tie): ANTONIO LENNERT & SYMON OLIVER | designers of Shift: Processes, by various authors (OCAD U Student Press);

Third prize (tie): JASON DEWINETZ | designer of Tin Roof, by Michael Ondaatje (Greenboathouse Press);

Honourable mention: ROBERT MAJZELS | designer of The 85 Project , by Claire Huot & Robert Majzels (Moveable Inc.)

Pictorial

First prize: JEFF KHONSARY | designer of More Than Two (Let It Make Itself), by Micah Lexier (Power Plant);

Second prize: LAUREN WICKWARE | designer of Mélanie Rocan: Souvenir involontaire, by Josée Drouin-Brisebois (Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto (Scarborough);

Honourable mention: NICOLE LAFOND | designer of Irene F. Whittome: Room 901, by Marie J. Jean, Eve-Lyne Beaudry & Vincent Bonin (Les éditions du passage).

Poetry

First prize: ANDREW STEEVES | designer of The Deer Yard, by Allan Cooper & Harry Thurston (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers);

Second prize: JEFF KHONSARY | designer of With A Bao A Qu: Reading When Attitudes Become Form, by Maria Fusco (New Documents);

Third prize: ANDREW STEEVES | designer of Ocean, by Sue Goyette (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers).

Prose Fiction

First prize: CATHERINE D’AMOURS | designer of Série Nova: 10 novellas, by various authors (Le Quartanier);

Second prize: ANDREW STEEVES | designer of Petitot, by Susan Haley (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers);

Third prize (tie): RAPHAËL DAUDELIN | designer of Wigrum, by Studio FEED and Daniel Canty (Talonbooks);

Third prize (tie): ANDREW STEEVES | designer of Someone Somewhere, by Dana Mills (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers);

Honourable mentions:
NATALIE OLSEN | designer of The Dilettantes, by Michael Hingston (Freehand Books),
TERRI NIMMO | designer of The Son of a Certain Woman, by Wayne Johnston (Knopf Canada).

Prose Non-Fiction

First prize: ANDREW STEEVES | designer of Jeremiah Bancroft at Fort Beauséjour & Grand-Pré, by Jonathan Fowler & Earle Lockerby (Gaspereau Press Printers & Publishers);

Second prize: TERRI NIMMO | designer of The Once and Future World, by J.B. MacKinnon (Random House Canada);

Third prize (tie): ALAN BROWNOFF | designer of Métis in Canada, edited by Christopher Adams, Gregg Dahl & Ian Peach (The University of Alberta Press);

Third prize (tie): DAVID DRUMMOND & ROBERT MACKIE | designers of The Writing Life: Journals, 1975-2005, by George Fetherling (McGill-Queen’s University Press);

Honourable mention: KATE HARGREAVES | designer of The Pope’s Bookbinder by David Mason (Biblioasis).

Prose Non-Fiction Illustrated

First prize: AARON POLLOCK, EVAN GOMES & ROBYN ARNASON | designers of Warehouse Journal vol. 22, by Aaron Pollock, Evan Gomes & Robyn Arnason (The Warehouse Journal, The University of Manitoba);

Second prize: MARVIN HARDER & FRANÇOIS MARTIN | designers of Arvik! In Pursuit of the Bowhead Whale, edited by Robert Fréchette (Publications Nunavik);

Third prize: CLINT HUTZULAK | designer of The Seghers Collection: Old Books for a New World, by Hélène Cazes (University of Victoria Libraries).

Reference

First prize: NAOMI MACDOUGALL & ANDREW BAGATELLA | designers of Pimentos & Piri Piri: Portuguese Comfort Cooking, by Carla Azevedo (Whitecap Books);

Second Prize: NAOMI MACDOUGALL | designer of Exploring Vancouver: the Architectural Guide, by Harold Kalman & Robin Ward (Douglas & McIntyre);

Third Prize: NAOMI MACDOUGALL | designer of East Meets West, by Stephanie Yuen (Douglas & McIntyre);

Honourable mentions:
KELLY HILL | designer of Butter Baked Goods, by Rosie Daykin (Appetite, by Random House),
MARVIN HARDER | designer of The Peace Athabaska Delta, by Kevin P. Timoney (The University of Alberta Press).

*Tyler Hyde is a summer student at McGill Univeristy, hired through the Young Canada Works program.