Ann Shortell

www.annshortell.com

Ann Shortell’s Celtic Knot: A Clara Swift Tale has won the 2020 Ontario Indie Author Project Award for Adult Fiction, Canada’s 2019 Whistler Independent Book Award for Fiction, & Ink & Cinema’s Showcase’s 2020 Crime List International’s Books award.

Dubbed ‘Alias Grace meets a dark, twisty Anne of Green Gables’, this debut novel has been honored by more than 30 awards.

This ‘herstory’ reimagines Canada’s great unsolved murder mystery—T. D’Arcy McGee’s 1868 assassination—through the eyes of bright young Irish housemaid Clara Swift.

In a previous century, Ann was an award-winning non-fiction author and journalist. She wrote Celtic Knot in homage to the Gaelic storytelling tradition embodied by Irish-Canadian poet-politician McGee, and published it on the 150th anniversary of his assassination.

It earned rave reviews from Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Foreword/Clarion Reviews & the Historical Novel Society, was a ‘Marian’s Pick’ for Sleuth of Baker St. bookstore, & was featured in Canada’s Crime Fiction Subscription’s Selection box.

Now Ann’s writing a sequel, with the working title An Irish Goodbye: A Clara Swift Tale. Clara’s misadventures catapult her amidst a Canadian rebellion and high-stakes American political intrigue, all culminating in a Canadian border raid by Irish-American Civil War veterans.

As a mystery, Celtic Knot garnered a Silver medal from the Florida Writers Association’s Royal Palm Literary Awards, Hon. Mention in Writer’s Digest’s Self-Published Ebook Awards, a Finalist placement from Crime Writers of Canada's Manuscript Award, & Semifinalist ranking in the Kindle Reader’s Book Awards

It also won a Gold Medal & 3 Silver Medals from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association; Gold in the Next Generation Indie Awards & eLit Awards; Silver—as a YA crossover tale—in the Moonbeam Awards; Bronze from the IPPY Awards & Illumination Book Awards; & 4 other Fiction medals.

As a manuscript ripe for adaptation, Celtic Knot ranked on Coverfly’s 2020 Red List of Historical Books, was a Semifinalist in Screencraft’s Cinematic Book Competition, & won book awards at the L.A. Neo-Noir Fest., the Wild Bunch Film Fest, & the Cowpokes Film Fest.

Finalist honors also include Canada’s Miramichi Reader Book Awards & IAN Book Of The Year Awards, & America’s Sarton Women’s Book Awards, Foreword INDIES, Eric Hoffer, National Indie Excellence, Maxy, & BookViral awards.

Named Notable Book #14 in Shelf Unbound Magazine’s Best Indie Books competition, Celtic Knot has a LiteraryTitan Award, B.R.A.G. Medallion, Catholic Writers Guild Seal of Approval, & Red Ribbon from Britain’s Wishing Shelf Award.