Finalists named for Alberta's top literary honour

Four books were shortlisted Thursday for the Grant MacEwan Author's Award, Alberta's most prestigious literary prize.

This year's finalists are:

• Dale Auger for Mwakwa Talks to the Loon: A Cree Story for Children, which tells the story of a young Cree man who loses his ability to hunt and provide for his people when he takes the gift for granted.
• Jennifer Hamblin and David Finch for The Diva and the Rancher: The Story of Norma Piper and George Pocaterra, which draws on personal diaries and correspondence to follow the love story and lives of an Italian who came to Canada hoping to strike it rich and a young Calgary singer who moves to Italy to study opera.
• Barbara Kingscote for Ride the Rising Wind: One Woman's Journey Across Canada, which follows a young woman who travelled from Quebec to the Pacific Ocean on horseback with only $100 and a map in 1949.
• Rudy Wiebe for Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest, which draws on the experiences of the author's immigrant family as they tried to build their life in Canada.

The $25,000 Grant MacEwan Author's Award was established by the government of Alberta in the summer of 2000 to honour the late author and former lieutenant-governor.

The winner of the author's award anda set ofscholarships for young writerswill be announced June 19 at the Alberta Book Awards gala.