The West Coast Book Prize Society has announced shortlists for eight BC and Yukon Book Prizes. The winners will be announced at the BC & Yukon Book Prizes Gala on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021.

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize (literary fiction)

• Five Little Indians, Michelle Good (HarperCollins)
• The Certainties, Aislinn Hunter (Knopf Canada)
• Petra, Shaena Lambert (Random House Canada)
• Consent, Annabel Lyon (Random House Canada)
• Fake It So Real, Susan Sanford Blades (Nightwood Editions)

Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (literary non-fiction)

• A History of My Brief Body, Billy-Ray Belcourt (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
• Nerve: A Personal Journey Through the Science of Fear, Eva Holland (Allen Lane Canada)
• Nobody Talks About Anything But the End: A Memoir, Liz Levine (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada’s Opioid Crisis, Benjamin Perrin (Viking Canada)
• A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, Seth Klein (ECW Press)

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize (a book about British Columbia or Yukon)

• Orphans of Empire, Grant Buday (Brindle & Glass/TouchWood Editions)
• British Columbia in Flames, Claudia Cornwall (Harbour Publishing)
• Kwanlin Dün: Dǎ Kwǎndur Ghày Ghàkwadîndur—Our Story in Our Words, Kwanlin Dün First Nation (Figure 1 Publishing)
• The Diary of Dukesang Wong: A Voice from Gold Mountain, David McIlwraith (ed.) and Wanda Joy Hoe (trans.) (Talonbooks)
• Following the Good River: The Life and Times of Wa’xaid, Briony Penn with Cecil Paul (Rocky Mountain Books)

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize

• The East Side of It All, Joseph Dandurand (Nightwood Editions)
• eat salt | gaze at the ocean, Junie Désil (Talonbooks)
• I Am Still Your Negro: An Homage to James Baldwin, Valerie Mason-John (University of Alberta Press)
• Burning Province, Michael Prior (McClelland & Stewart)
• Music at the Heart of Thinking: Improvisations 1-170, Fred Wah (Talonbooks)

Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes

• The New Corporation: How “Good” Corporations Are Bad for Democracy, Joel Bakan (Allen Lane Canada)
• A History of My Brief Body, Billy-Ray Belcourt (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
• My Art Is Killing Me and Other Poems, Amber Dawn (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Five Little Indians, Michelle Good (HarperCollins)
• Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada’s Opioid Crisis, Benjamin Perrin (Viking Canada)

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize

• Princesses Versus Dinosaurs, Linda Bailey and Joy Ang (ill.) (Tundra Books)
• Salma the Syrian Chef, Danny Ramadan and Anna Bron (ill.) (Annick Press)
• I Talk Like A River, Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith (ill.) (Neal Porter Books)
• Beep Beep Bubbie, Bonnie Sherr Klein and Élisabeth Eudes-Pascal (ill.), (Tradewind Books)
• Grandmother School, Rina Singh and Ellen Rooney (ill.) (Orca Book Publishers)

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize (non-illustrated book written for children)

• The Ride Home, Gail Anderson-Dargatz (Orca Book Publishers)
• Just Beyond the Very, Very Far North, Dan Bar-el and Kelly Pousette (ill.) (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
• Genius Jolene, Sara Cassidy and Charlene Chua (ill.) (Orca Book Publishers)
• Me and Banksy, Tanya Lloyd Kyi (Puffin Books)
• Heads Up: Changing Minds on Mental Health; Melanie Siebert and Belle Wuthrich (ill.) (Orca Book Publishers)

Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award

• The E. J. Hughes Book of Boats, Robert Amos (TouchWood Editions)
• On the Cusp of Contact: Gender, Space and Race in the Colonization of British Columbia, Jean Barman (Harbour Publishing)
• Primary Obsessions, Charles Demers (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History, Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Raven Squawk, Orca Squeak, Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd (Harbour Publishing)