BC Book Prizes

BC Book Prize Soirée: Thanks everyone!

Finalists, friends and fans had a celebratory good time at the fifth annual

BC Book Prize Soirée, Saturday, April 19 at the Metropolitan Hotel.

Thanks to all who helped make the event such a rousing success: Ron Johnston for his musical support, Diva at the Met for catering, the Metropolitan Hotel for hosting, and People’s Co-operative Bookstore for bringing books to buy and get autographed.

Big thanks, especially to the following for helping to make the BC Book Prize Soirée possible: Arsenal Pulp Press, Brindle & Glass Publishing, Douglas & McIntyre Publishing Group: Douglas & McIntyre and Greystone Books, Geist Magazine, Harbour Publishing, HarperCollins Canada, Key Porter Books, McClelland & Stewart, NeWest Press, Nightwood Editions, Oolichan Books, Orca Book Publishers, Penguin Group Canada, Random House Canada, Talonbooks, Thistledown Press and Véhicule Press.

And lastly, but by no means “leastly”, thanks to our many silent auction donors: The Metropolitan Hotel with your choice of sumptuous perks, Kate Walker and Company, The Listel Hotel, The Land Conservancy, The Laurel Point Inn, Vancouver Giants, Rogers’ Chocolates, Gravity Pope, Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, Rumble Theatre, Arts Club Theatre, Ecomarine, Vancouver Canadians, Ballet BC, Kirkley Carswell Designs, Granville Island Hotel, The Vancouver Playhouse, Chapters Indigo, SFU Writing and Publishing, SFU Summer Publishing Workshops, PuSh Festival, Vancouver Kidsbooks, Sequoia Grill, Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel, Marriott Pinnacle Hotel, Pan Pacific Hotel, See Seven, Helijet Airways, Fairmont Waterfront Hotel, Liberty Wine Merchantsm, Vancity Theatre, Circle Craft Gallery Shop,  Book Warehouse, Costco, BC Library Association, Vancouver Canucks, Geist magazine, BC Lions, Bose and Le Petit Spa.

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Gary Geddes named recipient of fifth annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence

The West Coast Book Prize Society is proud to recognize Gary Geddes as the recipient of the fifth annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. British Columbia’s Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Steven Point, will present the award at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala to be held at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in Vancouver on April 26, 2008. The event will be hosted by broadcaster Fanny Kiefer.

“From 15 Canadian Poets to Skookum Wawa to 20th Century Poetry and Poetics, Gary Geddes has raised the literary profile of both our province and nation, and has long been considered one of Canada’s most important men of letters. He has given decades of his life to teaching Canadian literature and the craft of writing as well as working as a university professor, writer-in-residence, critic, anthologist, translator, editor, and most importantly, writer. Gary Geddes’ writings have crossed countries and continents in performance and translation. He has received numerous awards, including the E. J. Pratt Medal, a Canadian Authors Association prize, two Archibald Lampman awards, and the Gabriela Mistral Prize for service to literature and the people of Chile. His work as a poet has been generous in its outward-looking gaze. His poems bring song and light into darkened corners of the human experience, document silent and hidden lives, and enter politics through the individual and the personal. His newest book of poems, Falsework, explores the 1958 collapse of Vancouver’s Second Narrows Bridge. His meditative memoir Sailing Home: A Journey Through Time, Place, and Memory (2001) chronicles his return to the West Coast with a deep sense of awe and gratitude for the beauty, wildness, and history of this place. In whatever genre he pursues, Gary Geddes writes with eloquence and intense awareness of mystery within the commonplace, and the single human voice singing inside the crowd. He tells the truth, in all its rawness and splendour.

For the integrity of his creative work, for his active and generous promotion of other writers, and for the words he has given to help map the literary geography of British Columbia, we proudly celebrate Gary Geddes.” – Jury member Carla Funk

The jury for this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award: Carla Funk, poet laureate for the city of Victoria; Margaret Reynolds, executive director of the Association of Book Publishers of BC; and Mel Bolen, owner of Bolen Books, Victoria.

This prize was established in 2003 by former Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Iona Campagnolo, to recognize British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province. The recipient receives a cash award of $5,000 and a commemorative certificate.

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Win all five Non-Fiction titles from Abebooks

For the past five years, AbeBooks.com has sponsored the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. This year, they have have an online contest to win a copy of all five finalists in this category:

• Phantom Limb by Theresa Kishkan
• Everywhere Being is Dancing by Robert Bringhurst
• The Triumph of Citizenship by Patricia Roy
• The 100-Mile Diet by J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith
• Interwoven Wild by Don Gayton

Good luck!

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West Coast Book Prize Society Elects new Board President

The West Coast Book Prize Society is pleased to announce that Sally Harding (The Cooke Agency) has been elected as President of the board of directors. The board thanks our now Past President, Michael Hayward for his service over the past two years. As Sally notes, “his constructive and considered leadership was soundly based in his dedication to BC books and writers.”

On Wednesday, April 9, the non-profit society also elected a new Vice-President: Shirley Lew of the BC Library Association. Ann-Marie Metten (Editors’ Association of Canada) and Norma Charles (CWILL BC) will remain on the board executive as Secretary and Treasurer respectively.

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Gala Presenters Announced

Authors Maggie deVries, Dennis Foon and Anosh Irani (pictured here) are among those who will have the honour of presenting the BC Book Prizes to the winners on stage on Saturday, April 26. The complete list of prize presenters is as follows:

• Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize: novelist and playwright, Anosh Irani
• Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: BC Teachers’ Federation President, Irene Lanzinger
• Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize: CBC Radio One BC Almanac host, Mark Forsythe
• Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize: publisher (Stanton, Atkins & Dosil), Mark Stanton
• BC Booksellers’ Choice in Honour of Bill Duthie: Duthie Books owner, Cathy Legate
• Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize: author, screenwriter and playwright,
  Dennis Foon
• Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize: author Maggie deVries
• Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence: The Honourable Steven L. Point

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Gillian Wigmore at UBC Bookstore April 17

.Gillian Wigmore, a finalist for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, will read from Soft Geography at the UBC Bookstore at Robson Sqaure, Vancouver, on Thursday, April 17 at 7:00pm. She will be joined by poets Ryan Arnold and Jordan Scott.

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Congrats to our first monthly BC Book draw winner

Congratulations to Joan Bailey of Calgary. She is the winner of a copy of The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest, by Ian McAllister (Greystone Books). Her name was selected at random from those who joined the Rebus Creative-BC Book Prizes email list. We’ll be doing monthly draws throughout the year so if you have already signed up, there are more chances to win coming up. And if you have not done so already, enter your email address in the “Subscribe Now” box at left, under STAY IN TOUCH.

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David Chariandy and Shaena Lambert in Whistler April 12

Two authors shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize—David Chariandy (Soucouyant) and Shaena Lambert (Radiance) are appearing at the Whistler Public Library (4329 Main Street) along with Theresa McWhirter and Timothy Taylor as part of Writing on the Edge: What Shapes our West Coast Writers on Saturday April 12,  6-8 pm. They will discuss their influences with moderator and Whistler Reads founder, Paula Shackleton. Tickets $10 at the door. The event is part of Libration, Whistler Public Library‘s celebration of its new building, April 11-17,  2008.

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