Conceit receives the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for 2008
| Posted on: Sunday, April 27, 2008 |
Blog
Category: 'BC Book Prizes 2008' |
No doubt about it, the finalists for the BC Book Prizes have the most fun. The party started when the short list was announced on March 6. A month later, two teams of writers fanned out to visit schools and communities around the province, uploading photos and blogging the tour at www.bcbookprizes.ca They returned to a glamorous soirée at the Metropolitan Hotel in Vancouver (touring had proved thirsty work!) and the next morning two new teams of finalists set out in different directions, flooding the blog with photos and amusing posts about everything from candy-stashes to hitchhiking rodents. The fortnight of partying climaxed at the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver last night, April 26, with a gala banquet hosted by Sally Harding, the new President of the West Coast Book Prize Society, and emcee'd by Fanny Kiefer. The prizes were awarded to:
· Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize: Conceit, Mary Novik (Doubleday Canada). Presented by Anosh Irani
- Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize: The 100 Mile Diet, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon (Random House Canada). Presented by Mark Stanton
- Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize: Everywhere Being is Dancing, Robert Bringhurst (Gaspereau Press). Presented by Mark Forsythe
- Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Forage by Rita Wong (Nightwood Editions) Presented by Irene Lanzinger
- Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize: The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by Polly Horvath (Groundwood Books). Presented by Dennis Foon
- Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize: A Sea-Wishing Day, written by Robert Heidbreder and illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton (Kids Can Press) Presented by Maggie deVries
- Bill Duthie B.C. Booksellers' Choice: The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest, by Ian McAllister (Greystone Books). Presented by Cathy Legate
- Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence: Gary Geddes. Presented by the Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Steven Point. Geddes is a personal hero of mine since he was one of the first editors to include Canadian poetry in an international anthology in his ground-breaking 20th-Century Poetry & Poetics, first published by Oxford in1969.
When I catch my breath, I'll be posting photos of the Northern Tour and my fellow tourees, Kari-Lynn Winters, Nan Gregory, and Theresa Kishkan in the photo gallery on this website. I'll also be uploading candid shots of the gala, including one of the finalists for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize 2008: Heather Burt (Adam's Peak), Shaena Lambert (Radiance), David Chariandy (Soucouyant), Claire Mulligan (The Reckoning of Boston Jim), and me. I'll leave it up to you to decide who looks the spiffiest, Chariandy in a modish post-structuralist tux, or Mulligan in elegant poured-on gold lamé. The photo catches us laughing about the hilarious article by Caroline Skelton in The North Shore News, which awarded "grammy" prizes to the five books: The I can smell the cobblestones award (Conceit), The living rooms award (Soucouyant), The ill-fated animal award (Reckoning), The things-that-go-bump-in-the-night award (Conceit), The bad sex award (Adam's Peak), and The madwoman/madman in the attic award (Radiance). We were all envious of Heather for bagging the best prize for a scene that--well, you're just going to have to read Adam's Peak to learn more.
The Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize is such a wonderful encouragement for fiction writers in this province. We all felt the honour of being finalists and all felt (as Heather said) that we had "won" in March when our books were chosen for the short list. All the books this year are debut novels, so the honour is particularly important for us. We have all been encouraged to keep on writing, and hope that new novelists, hearing about this prize, will persevere in the difficult work of bringing their own long projects to completion.
Northern Team Touches Down
| Posted on: Sunday, April 20, 2008 |
Blog
Category: 'BC Book Prizes 2008' |
Last night, Theresa Kishkan, Kari-Lynn Winters, Nan Gregory, and I arrived on a flight from Prince Rupert after a fabulous road trip visiting communities along the Yellowhead Highway in Northern BC. Shortly after touchdown, Theresa was embraced by her husband, John, who whisked her off for some private time at their home on the Sechelt Peninsula. Kari-Lynn, Nan, and I stuffed our luggage into a van captained (once again) by our producer, Bryan Pike, and sped off to our homes to shower and dress for the soiree at the Metropolitan hotel. This was a grand event, with overflowing glasses of wine, canapes by Diva, a silent auction to support the BC Book Prizes, and lots of schmoozing with local literati. It was fun to talk to the other finalists, especially the other novelists short-listed for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, David Chariandy, Claire Mulligan, Shaena Lambert, and Heather Burt—all great friends and fine writers. Afterwards, I finally found time to catch up with the blogging, savouring the posts made by my fellow tourees, Kari-Lynn and Theresa at http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/tour/category/northern_leg/, which wonderfully capture the bi-polar ups and downs of our travels along the Yellowhead. I’ve uploaded a set of photos titled 2008 Northern Tour: Prince Rupert to Prince George—and back! Click on this link to see the photographs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bcbookprizes/sets/72157604638679276/with/2428659814/
I hope you’ll enjoy these highlights of our interactions with landscapes and communities and will chip in with comments. We’d especially welcome reconnecting with people we met along the way—new friends that we hope to hang on to in the years ahead.
If you're in the Lower Mainland, perhaps you'll be able to come out to hear me and my two writing partners, June Hutton and Jen Sookfong Lee, www.spinwrites.com, at the North Shore Writers Festival this Monday, April 21 at 7:30 at the West Vancouver Memorial Library, 1950 Marine Drive, West Vancouver.
Chat with the Five Finalists for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize 2008
| Posted on: Sunday, April 06, 2008 |
Blog
Category: 'Uncategorized' |
Heather Burt ( Adam's Peak), Shaena Lambert ( Radiance), and David Chariandy ( Soucouyant) are already good friends--Vancouver is a small town as far as the writing community goes--and it was a pleasure to meet Claire Mulligan, having just finished her wonderful Reckoning of Boston Jim. With the five finalists plus Gail--and other visiting authors Bonnie Lumley, June Hutton, Jen Sookfong Lee, and Karen X. Tulchinsky--the conversation was quick-moving and inspiring. We'd all read one another's novels and were eager to point out their fine points. We were all trying to push somebody else into the limelight. Maybe we're just not competitive enough in BC, but it seemed to be more about supporting one another than vying for the same prize. Eventually the attention turned to what everyone was wearing to the gala April 26 at which the winner will be announced. We'll all be there (though only one of us will be wearing a diamond-studded cowboy suit!) and whoever gets called up on stage will carry the torch for the rest of us, since we're all thrilled to be short-listed and in such very fine company.
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