Three writers have been named to the shortlist of the inaugural Al and Eurithe Purdy BC Award for Excellence.

The $5,000 award, administered by the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, recognizes “an outstanding book of fiction or non-fiction written by a British Columbia author and traditionally published by a B.C.-based publisher.”

The idea for the prize came from Eurithe Purdy who, at 101, was looking for additional ways to create a legacy for the life and work of her husband, the late poet Al Purdy. Marisa Alps, artistic director of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, says Purdy approached the festival late last year about the award. She planned to sponsor the award, which would honour B.C.-based writers of books published by B.C.-based presses, and asked whether the festival would be able to take on administering the prize. Purdy lives on Vancouver Island, and Al Purdy’s longtime publisher, Harbour Publishing, is located on the Sunshine Coast.

“We feel very blessed. We feel it’s a wonderful opportunity for our festival and we’re very very pleased to be able to help administer a prize that will support B.C. writers in this way and promote the work of B.C. publishers, so we’re just thrilled to bits that she chose us,” Alps says. “It’s such a generous gesture and just shows her deep love and support of Canadian writers – she’s one in a million.”

The new prize joins Purdy’s existing literary award legacy: the Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize, which launched in 2024, and the Al-Purdy A-frame Residency, administered by the Al Purdy A-frame Association.

Purdy has granted the festival a $150,000 endowment to support the prize.

The award seal, which features a dogwood flower, was created for the prize by celebrated B.C. artist Roy Henry Vickers.

With a short timeline to launch the prize this year, there was no time for a formal submission process; Alps reviewed bibliographic data to determine a list of about 40 eligible titles. A reading committee – on which Alps was joined by festival board members – read the books and determined a longlist, from which a three-title shortlist was selected.

The winner, who will be named on August 13 during the opening reception of the festival, will be determined by an independent jury.

The festival runs Aug. 13-16 at the Rockwood Centre in Sechelt, B.C.

The shortlisted titles for the inaugural award are:

• Unceded: Understanding British Columbia’s Colonial Past and Why It Matters Now by George M. Abbott (Purich Books/UBC Press)
• One Arrow Left: The Memoir of Secwépemc Knowledge Keeper Cecilia DeRose by Cecilia DeRose with Sage Birchwater (Caitlin Press)
• Rufous and Calliope by Sarah Louise Butler (Douglas & McIntyre)