The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council has announced the longlist for the 2020 BMO Winterset Award, which celebrates excellence in Newfoundland and Labrador writing regardless of age group or genre, and BARRY SQUIRES, FULL TILT by Heather Smith (Penguin Teen) made the list! Previously, Heather won the Winterset Award for EBB & FLOW, a novel in verse.
BARRY SQUIRES, FULL TILT was a Globe and Mail’s Globe 100 Favorite Books of 2020, a CBC Books’ Best Middle-Grade and Young Adult Books of 2020, a Canadian Children’s Book News’ Best Books of 2020 and one of the Ontario Library Association’s 2020 Best Bets selection, Young Adult Fiction category. Barry Squires, Full Tilt takes readers on a romp through the streets of St. John’s and into the Squires household, a place where tragedy strikes but love prevails. Derry Girls meets Billy Elliot with an East coast twist.
Heather Smith is originally from Newfoundland, and now lives in Waterloo, Ontario, with her husband and three children. Her east coast roots inspire much of her writing. Her novel, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe, won the Ontario Library Association’s White Pine Award and the Ruth & Sylvia Schwartz Award, and was shortlisted for the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction. It also received starred reviews from Kirkus and Quill & Quire and was named a best book of 2017 by Kirkus, Bank Street College of Education, The Globe & Mail and Quill & Quire (honorable mention), as well as selected as an Outstanding International Book by USBBY (United States Board on Books for Young People). Heather is represented by Amy Tompkins.
On Monday, March 1, 2021, the three finalists will be revealed. Visit the ArtsNL website to see the full longlist: http://www.nlac.ca/news/longlist2020.htm