BC and Yukon Book Prizes unveil 2024 shortlist, spanning names like Darrel J. McLeod, Emelia Symington-Fedy, Naomi Klein, and Helen Knott

Fortieth-anniversary awards across fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, and more to be announced September 28

By Janet Smith

THE WEST COAST Book Prize Society has announced the finalists for the 40th Annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Awards will be given out September 28 across eight categories. 

Nominees for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize are:  

• Darrel J. McLeod, A Season in Chezgh’un (Douglas & McIntyre) 

• Geoffrey D. Morrison, Falling Hour (Coach House Books) 

• Hazel Jane Plante, Any Other City (Arsenal Pulp Press) 

• Brandon Reid, Beautiful Beautiful (Nightwood Editions) 

• Chelsea Wakelyn, What Remains of Elsie Jane (Dundurn Press) 

The Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize shortlist is:  

• Colleen Brown, If you lie down in a field, she will find you there (Radiant Press) 

• Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (Knopf Canada)  

• Helen Knott, Becoming a Matriarch (Knopf Canada)  

• Emelia Symington-Fedy, Skid Dogs (Douglas & McIntyre) 

• John Vaillant, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast (Vintage Canada) 

Writers up for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, recognizing the book that contributes most to the “enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia and Yukon”, are:  

• Jennifer Bonnell, Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia (Royal BC Museum Publications) 

• Ian Kennedy, The Best Loved Boat: The Princess Maquinna (Harbour Publishing) 

• Wayne McCrory, The Wild Horses of the Chilcotin: Their History and Future (Harbour Publishing)

• David Norwell, A Complex Coast: A Kayak Journey from Vancouver Island to Alaska (Heritage House)

• Katherine Palmer Gordon, This Place Is Who We Are: Stories of Indigenous Leadership, Resilience, and Connection to Homelands (Harbour Publishing) 

Nominees for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize are: 

• Dominique Bernier-Cormier, Entre Rive and Shore (icehouse poetry) 

• Jess Housty, Crushed Wild Mint (Nightwood Editions) 

• Samantha Nock, A Family of Dreamers (Talonbooks) 

• Bradley Peters, Sonnets from a Cell (Brick Books) 

• Cathy Stonehouse, Dream House (Nightwood Editions)

The shortlist for the Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes, presented to a book that challenges or kickstarts ideas and forces that shape what writing, art, and/or society can become, includes: 

• Helen Knott, Becoming a Matriarch (Knopf Canada) 

• Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, JAJ: A Haida Manga (Douglas & McIntyre) 

• Angela Sterritt, Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls (Greystone Books) 

• Y-Dang Troeung, Landbridge: Life in fragments (Alchemy by Knopf Canada) 

• Lindsay Wong, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories (Penguin Canada) 

Up for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize for the best illustrated book written for children are:  

• E. G. Alaraj (Author), Martyna Czub (Illustrator), When Stars Arise (Orca Book Publishers)

• Kirsten Pendreigh (Author), Crystal Smith (Illustrator), Maybe A Whale (Groundwood Books)

• David A. Robertson (Author), Maya McKibbin (Illustrator), The Song That Called Them Home (Tundra Books)

• Lorna Schultz Nicholson (Author), Ellen Rooney (Illustrator), What to Bring (Owlkids) 

• Jordan Scott (Author), Sydney Smith (Illustrator), My Baba’s Garden (Neal Porter Books) 

Nominees for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize for the best non-illustrated book written for children are:

• Janis Bridger and Lara Jean Okihiro, Obaasan’s Boots (Second Story Press) 

• Polly Horvath, Pine Island Visitors (Puffin Canada) 

• Wanda John-Kehewin, Hopeless in Hope (HighWater Press) 

• Julie Lawson, Out of the Dark (Nimbus Publishing) 

• Andrea Warner (Author), Louise Reimer (Illustrator), Rise Up and Sing! Power, Protest, and Activism in Music (Greystone Books) 

And nominated for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award, which goes to the originating publisher and author(s) of the best book in terms of public appeal, initiative, design, production, and content, are: 

• Sam George, with Jill Yonit Goldberg, Liam Belson, Dylan MacPhee, and Tanis Wilson, The Fire Still Burns: Life In and After Residential School (UBC Press, Purich Books) 

• Jess Housty, Crushed Wild Mint (Nightwood Editions) 

• Francine McCabe, Fleece and Fibre: Textile Producers of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands (Heritage House) 

• Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, JAJ: A Haida Manga (Douglas & McIntyre) 

• Henry Tsang, White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp Press) 

The winners’ ceremony in the fall will be held at the University Golf Club, also celebrating the recipient of the 2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence and the Borealis Prize: The Commissioner of Yukon Award for Literary Contribution. 

A selection of the shortlisted authors will be part of BC and Yukon Book Prizes On Tour—a reading tour taking finalists to schools and public venues in communities throughout B.C. and Yukon from May through September. 

A casual soirée to celebrate the shortlisted authors will be held on May 16 at 6:30 pm at Book Warehouse (632 West Broadway), and is free and open to the public. Finalist books will be available for purchase.  

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