B.C.’s literati gathered at a gala ceremony on April 28 at Victoria’s Government House to honour the winners and nominees of this year’s B.C. Book Prizes. (Photos by Sharon Bradley)

Sarah Ellis accepts the Sheila Egoff Children’s Literature Prize.

Michael Hayward, board president; Maggie de Vries, winner of the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize (which she won with illustrator Renne Benoit); Iona Campagnolo, lieutenant governor of British Columbia; and Ted Harrison, who presented the award.

Carol Windley, winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize; Katherine Gordon, winner of the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize; and Patrick Lane, winner of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

James Heneghan, finalist for the Sheila A. Egoff Children

Michael Hayward, BC Book Prizes board president, chats with a guest and board secretary Ann-Marie Metten.

A bird’s-eye view of the crowd.

Rachel Lebowitz, finalist for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, and her husband, poet and frequent Q&Q contributor Zach Wells.

Prize finalists Sima Elizabeth Shefrin, Joan Larson, and a guest get a breath of fresh air outside the party.