Two B.C. writers have been honoured with provincial literary awards. First Nations author, artist, and activist Jeannette Armstrong has won this year’s George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award, a $5,000 prize recognizing a B.C. author’s outstanding and long-term contribution to the province’s culture. Armstrong is the first-ever First Nations author to receive the award in its 23-year history. Along with the cash prize, a plaque commemorating her will be installed in the library, and B.C. Author Appreciation Day activities will be held in her honour.

Victoria author and The Tyee legislative bureau chief Andrew MacLeod has been named winner of this year’s George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature for A Better Place on Earth: The Search for Fairness in Super Unequal British Columbia (Harbour Publishing), his 2015 title offering an examination of how and why socioeconomic disparity in B.C. is growing.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony at Vancouver Public Library’s main branch on June 29