The Writers’ Guild of Alberta has singled out an Edmonton author with family roots in Rimbey for an award.
Kate A. Boorman won the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature sponsored by the Under the Arch Youth Foundation at the Calgary Foundation for her novel, WINTERKILL.
Boorman received her award at the Alberta Literary Awards Gala on June 4, 2016 in MacDonald Hall at SAIT in Calgary.
In a telephone interview from her home in Edmonton, where she is busy working on a new novel, Boorman said receiving the award was “wonderful.”
“I feel like a relative newcomer to the writing community and it was really lovely to be recognized by my peers.”
In her novel, WINTERKILL, Boorman takes the reader on a thrilling journey of alternate history where a fearsome mysterious enemy isolates a frontier settlement and an ostracized teenage girl dealing with life, love and family secrets is the strong female heroine.
Boorman was inspired by the history of North America as she created the settlement of the west in her book. As the story unfolds, Emmeline, the young heroine finds love and fights to uncover the truth about her family’s legacy in a community ruled by fear.
Abrams/Amulet, the book’s publisher said the book is a must-read that is equally thrilling, creepy and touching.
A graduate of the University of Alberta with a Masters in Art, Boorman is by no means a novice writer, but her field of expertise previously centered on non-fiction and research articles.
After becoming a stay at home mom with two small children, she began writing fiction and discovered she really loved it.
DARKTHAW, the sequel to WINTERKILL, was published in October of 2015 and the final book in the series, HEARTFIRE, is to come out in November.
Boorman is now working on another book about sibling rivalry between two sisters whose parents have disappeared.
Boorman, who is the daughter of Dr. Michael and Annette Boorman was born in Nepal and grew up in Rimbey.
Visit her at kateaboorman.com and follow her on Twitter @kateboorman.
Last year she was shortlisted for the Alberta Readers’ Choice Award sponsored by the Edmonton Public Library for WINTERKILL.
Sigmund Brouwer from Red Deer and Lorna Schultz Nicholson were also shortlisted for the R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature.