Shortlists for the 2023 City of Victoria Book Prize and City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize were announced by the Victoria Book Prize Society.

The finalists for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize are:

• Maleea Acker, Hesitating Once to Feel Glory (Nightwood Editions)
• Robert Amos, E.J. Hughes: Canadian War Artist (Touchwood Editions)
• Mary Bomford, Red Dust and Cicada Songs (Caitlin Press)
• Pauline Holdstock, Confessions with Keith (Biblioasis)
• Katłįà (Catherine) Lafferty, This House Is Not a Home (Roseway Publishing)

The City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize finalists are:

• Sara Cassidy, Union (Orca Book Publishers)
• Monique Gray Smith, I Hope / nipakosêyimon (Orca Book Publishers)
• Julie McLaughlin (illustration),  Little Pine Cone: Wild Fires and the Natural World (Orca Book Publishers)

Both prizes carry an award of $5,000. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry titles by Greater Victoria authors are eligible for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, and both authors and illustrators are eligible for the City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize.

The winners will be announced at the gala event on October 11.