The West Coast Book Prize Society has announced the shortlists for the 28th annual B.C. Book Prizes, and for Esi Edugyan, the competition cuts close to home.
Edugyan, whose novel Half-Blood Blues won the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize and this morning was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, is competing against her husband, Steven Price, and his novel, Into That Darkness, for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. Both books are published by Thomas Allen Publishers.
Charles Taylor Prize for Non-fiction shortlisted authors Charlotte Gill and JJ Lee face off again, this time for the Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize, alongside 2012 Canada Reads finalist Carmen Aguirre. Gill is also nominated for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award.
The winners in all seven categories will be announced at the Lieutenant Governor’s B.C. Book Prizes Gala on May 12 in Vancouver.
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize:
- Michael Christie, The Beggar’s Garden (HarperCollins Canada)
- Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers)
- Frances Greenslade, Shelter (Random House Canada)
- Steven Price, Into That Darkness (Thomas Allen)
- D.W. Wilson, Once You Break a Knuckle (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize:
- Chuck Davis, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver (Harbour Publishing)
- Fred Herzog, Fred Herzog: Photographs (Douglas & McIntyre)
- Andrew Nikiforuk, Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America’s Great Forests (Greystone Books)
- Sheryl Salloum, The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton (Mother Tongue Publishing)
- Scott Watson, Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and Their Contemporaries (Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery)
Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize:
- Carmen Aguirre, Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (Douglas & McIntyre)
- Gary Geddes, Drink the Bitter Root: A Writer’s Search for Justice and Redemption in Africa (Douglas & McIntyre)
- Charlotte Gill, Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-planting Tribe (Greystone Books)
- Theresa Kishkan, Mnemonic: A Book of Trees (Goose Lane Editions)
- JJ Lee, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit (M&S)
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize:
- Patrick Lane, The Collected Poems of Patrick Lane (Harbour)
- Susan McCaslin, Demeter Goes Skydiving (University of Alberta Press)
- Garry Thomas Morse, Discovery Passages (Talonbooks)
- John Pass, crawlspace (Harbour)
- Sharon Thesen, Oyama Pink Shale (House of Anansi Press)
Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize:
- Dan Bar-el and Rae Maté, Pussycat, Pussycat, Where Have You Been? (Simply Read Books)
- Nicola I. Campbell and Kim La Fave, Grandpa’s Girls (Groundwood Books)
- Mike Deas, Dalen & Gole: Scandal in Port Angus (Orca Book Publishers)
- Robert Heidbreder and Marc Mongeau, Shake-Awakes (Tradewind Books)
- Sara O’Leary and Julie Morstad, When I Was Small (Simply Read)
Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize:
- Glen Huser, The Runaway (Tradewind)
- Pamela Porter, I’ll Be Watching (Groundwood)
- Karen Rivers, What is Real (Orca)
- Caitlyn Vernon, Nowhere Else on Earth: Standing Tall for the Great Bear Rainforest (Orca)
- Moira Young, Blood Red Road (Doubleday Canada)
Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award:
- Chuck Davis, The Chuck Davis History of Metropolitan Vancouver (Harbour)
- Charlotte Gill, Eating Dirt (Greystone)
- Fred Herzog, Fred Herzog: Photographs (Douglas & McIntyre Editions)
- Gary Hynes, Island Wineries of British Columbia (TouchWood)
- Robert J. Wiersema, Walk Like a Man: Coming of Age with the Music of Bruce Springsteen (Greystone)