June 18, 2018―Winnipeg-based award-winning teacher and author Colleen Nelson is a finalist in the Young Adult category for the High Plains Book Awards for her book Blood Brothers. The awards were established by the Billings Public Library Board to recognize regional literary works that examine and reflect on life on the High Plains.

The winners will be announced at the annual awards banquet that is held in conjunction with the 2018 High Plains BookFest on Saturday, October 20, 2018. Each winner will receive a $500 cash prize.

36 books have been selected as finalists in 12 categories for the 12th Annual High Plains Book Awards.

Blood Brothers explores two friends whose lives diverge when Jakub gets a scholarship to a private school and Lincoln’s brother lures him into a gang. Booklist described the novel as “a smartly plotted examination of the despair that keeps people in their places and the hope that pulls them out of it,” while Canadian Children's Book News praised the book for “skillfully exploring moral dilemmas and difficult decisions.”

Colleen Nelson is an award-winning teacher and author based in Winnipeg whose previous books include Finding Hope, The Fall, and Tori by Design. Her latest novel, Sadia, centres on a Muslim teenager who must decide how far she is willing to go to defend her beliefs when faced with the pressures of high school life.

To book an interview with Colleen Nelson, please contact:

Michelle Melski, Publicity Manager

416-214-5544 x222; mmelski [at] dundurn [nospam] com