BC Book Prizes

Congrats to our May BC Book draw winner

Liz Hansen of Victoria is the lucky winner of a copy of The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating (and winner of the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize)

Congratulations, Liz, and happy reading (and eating!)

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

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.

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

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.

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

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!

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

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

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

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.

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

Roderick Haig-Brown Remembered

In today’s Vancouver Sun, Stephen Hume has a feature article “A tribute to a vanished world: How a Vancouver Island writer came to tell his story of friend and neighbour Roderick Haig-Brown, conservationist and international literary icon”.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Roderick Haig-Brown’s birth. This article is an apt “slice of life” remembrance of our Regional Prize namesake. Enjoy.

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

BC Book Prizes On Tour: 2008 Authors Announced

The West Coast Book Prize Society is thrilled to announce the following shortlisted authors will be travelling around the province with BC Book Prizes On Tour:

Northern Leg

(April 13-18, 2008)

• Nan Gregory: Pink (Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize)
• Theresa Kishkan: Phantom Limb (Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize)
• Mary Novik: Conceit (Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize)
• Kari-Lynn Winters: Jeffrey and Sloth (Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize)

Lower Mainland Leg

(April 14-18, 2008)

• Lisa Cinar: The Day It All Blew Away (Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize)
• Robert Hiedbreder: A Sea-Wishing Day
  (Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize)
• Shaena Lambert: Radiance (Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize)
• Gillian Wigmore: Soft Geography (Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)

Southern Leg

(April 21-25, 2008)

• Ruth Campbell and Ron Smith: Elf the Eagle (Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize)
• Don Gayton: Interwoven Wild: An Ecologist Loose in the Garden
  (Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize)
• Claire Mulligan: The Reckoning of Boston Jim (Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize)
• Arleen Paré: Paper Trail (Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)

Kootenays Leg

(April 21-25, 2008)

• Heather Burt: Adam’s Peak (Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize)
• David Jones: Baboon: A Novel (Sheila A Egoff Children’s Literature Prize)
• Meg Tilly: Porcupine (Sheila A Egoff Children’s Literature Prize)
• Rita Wong: Forage (Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize)

Thanks to all of these artists for putting their lives on hold for a week this April to visit book lovers around the province.

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

Fanny Kiefer to emcee 24th Annual BC Book Prizes Gala

The West Coast Book Prize Society is pleased to announce that Fanny Kiefer, star of Shaw TV’s Studio 4, will host the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prize Gala on Saturday, April 26, 2008 at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel.

Named one of 25 most influential Canadian women by Chatelaine magazine, Fanny brings her inquisitive mind and sharp insight to in-depth discussions with the country’s political elite, artists, change-makers and, yes, acclaimed authors, on her always entertaining and informative show. More

Posted by Liesl Jauk | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink

BC 150 brings Book Prize Tour to Kootenays

Thanks to the support of BC 150, the West Coast Book Prize Society is thrilled to bring our ever-growing BC Book Prizes On Tour to a whole new region: The Kootenays. From April 21-25, book lovers will meet selected BC Book Prize finalists at bookstores and libraries in Nelson, Trail, Creston, Cranbrook, and Castlegar. Our authors will also visit local elementary and secondary schools, where they will leave behind a signed copy of their books for the school libraries.

These special author events are but one of many presented throughout the province in 2008 with the support of BC 150.

For details on our tour, see On Tour.

Posted by Monique | Filed under: Announcements | Permalink