Calgary author Michael Davie's comic novel about a teen searching for love has captured the inaugural Alberta Readers' Choice Award.

Other finalists for the Reader's Award

  • The Frog Lake Reader by Myrna Kostash.
  • Buying Cigarettes for the Dog by Stuart Ross.
  • Bomb Canada and Other Unkind Remarks in the American Media by Chantal Allan.
  • The Forgotten Explorer: Samuel Prescott Fay's 1914 Expedition to the Northern Rockies by Samuel Fay.

Davie, who also gets $10,000, won for his debut novel Fishing for Bacon. It was released in 2009 and qualified for the new prize created last year by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta and the Edmonton Public Library.

The writer, who works for a software company during the day, says he was "completely overwhelmed" at the ceremony in Edmonton Friday night. His novel was one of five selected for a public online vote.

Davie's coming-of-age story chronicles the journey of teen Bacon Sobelowski, whose goal is to find that special someone in life.

Other winners of the Alberta book publishers' awards included:

  • Poetry: Frenzy by Catherine Owen.
  • Children's Literature: The Broken Thread by Linda Smith.
  • Short Story: When in the Field with Her at His Back by Ben Lof.
  • Short Non-Fiction Story: The Perils of War and Mother-Son Relationships by Joan Dixon.
  • Travel Writing: One Flamenco Night by Mia Atienza.