Canadian Jewish Book Awards Honour Nine Writers

A wide variety of themes and stories caught the attention of this year's Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award jurors, from cycling spies to stolen identities and much more.

This year is the 25th annual presentation of the prizes, with nine authors honoured (including two co-authors). The awards were founded to recognise and celebrate excellent Canadian writing on Jewish themes and subjects. Past winners of the prize include Peter C. Newman, Alison Pick and David Bezmozgis.

An awards ceremony will take place on Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 8:00p.m. The ceremony is free and open to the public at the Toronto Reference Library (789 Yonge Street). The event will be hosted by past president and publisher of Penguin Books Canada and director of the Humber Creative Book Publishing Program, Cynthia Good.

The 2013 jury consisted of Barbara Berson, Adam Fuerstenberg, Judith Ghert, Alain Goldschläger, Sara R. Horowitz, Carla Lancit, Michael Posner, Judy Stoffman and Edward Trapunski.

The 2013 winners of the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards are:

BIOGRAPHY
Aili and Andres McConnon for Road to Valour: A True Story of World War II Italy, the Nazis, and the Cyclist Who Inspired a Nation (Doubleday)

FICTION
Nancy Richler for The Imposter Bride (HarperCollins Canada)

HISTORY
Matti Friedman for The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an
Ancient Bible (Algonquin Books)

HOLOCAUST LITERATURE
Julija Sukys for Epistolophilia: Writing the Life of Ona Simaite (University of Nebraska Press)

POETRY
Isa Milman for Something Small To Carry Home (Quattro Books)

SCHOLARSHIP
L. Ruth Klein for Nazi Germany, Canadian Responses: Confronting Antisemitism in the Shadow of
War (McGill-Queen's University Press)

YIDDISH
Pierre Anctil Jacob-Isaac Segal 1869-1954 Un poete yiddish de montreal et son milieu (Presses de l'Universite Laval)

CHILDREN AND YOUTH LITERATURE
Sharon E. McKay for Enemy Territory (Annick Press)