Saskatchewan Committed to Telling its Stories

Creative Saskatchewan is a proud sponsor of the Saskatchewan Book Awards.

Thanks to the hard work of everyone involved with the Saskatchewan Book Awards throughout its 31-year history, our province has shown a commitment to telling its stories.

“The Saskatchewan Book Awards are a very valuable peer assessment of a publisher’s work, telling Saskatchewan stories, sharing work of Saskatchewan authors, but it’s also a great marketing tool,” says Heather Nickel, past president of SaskBooks and owner of Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing.

Nickel points out there is a direct correlation between book sales and success in the awards. “Marketing becomes easier when a book has won an award,” she says. “Our book awards have an excellent reputation nationwide for discerning titles that readers will want to read.”

The Saskatchewan Book Awards is run by a working board. This board puts on a gala every year, assesses criteria for awards, and makes sure as many genres as possible are represented in the awards. “There aren’t many provincial book awards that have as inclusive a variety of recognition and awards as the Sask Book Awards,” Nickel says.

Creative Saskatchewan has been a proud Saskatchewan Book Award sponsor for the Publishing Award since 2020. The sponsorship amount of $5,000 annually goes towards a $2,000 prize to the award recipient while the remaining $3,000 is dedicated to support administration costs and the hosting of the annual award ceremony.

The award is presented annually to the Saskatchewan publisher of the best book, based on literary or artistic value, the quality of editing, book design, production, and content. Past winners have included local publishers such as Radiant Press and the University of Regina Press.