Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Vancouver Book Club selection, Adventures In Solitude, shortlisted for 2 BC Book Prizes!

It was announced this morning that the second selection in our Vancouver Book Club from last year has been shortlisted for two BC Book Prizes ! Congratulations are in order for our friend, author, Grant Lawrence! Photo: Christine McAvoy The winners o

It was announced this morning that the second selection in our Vancouver Book Club from last year has been shortlisted for two BC Book Prizes! Congratulations are in order for our friend, author, Grant Lawrence!

Photo: Christine McAvoy

The winners of the BC Book Prizes will be announced at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala on Thursday, April 21, 2011 at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver. BC's Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Steven L. Point, OBC, will be in attendance.

Read an excerpt from the book HERE and check out the complete lists of all of the books nominated this year.

The official word:

BC Book Prizes 2011 Shortlists Announced

Vancouver, BC – The West Coast Book Prize Society is pleased to announce the names of the finalists vying for recognition in seven categories at the 27th Annual BC Book Prizes.

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize awarded to the author of the best work of fiction:

Supported by Friesens and Webcom

Rifet Bahtijaragic, Chernovs’ Toil and Peace (Publish America)

Gurjinder Basran, Everything Was Good-Bye (Mother Tongue Publishing)

Jack Hodgins, The Master of Happy Endings (Thomas Allen Publishers)

Meredith Quartermain, Recipes from the Red Planet (BookThug)

Jack Whyte, The Forest Laird (Viking Canada)

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize to recognize the author(s) of the book that contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia:

Supported by Transcontinental Printing

Bruce Grenville and Scott Steedman, Visions of BC: A Landscape Manual (Douglas and McIntyre)

Aldona Jonaitis and Aaron Glass, The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History (Douglas and McIntyre)

Grant Lawrence, Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound (Harbour Publishing)

Sylvia Olsen, Working with Wool (Sono Nis Press)

Dan Savard, Images from the Likeness House (Royal BC Museum)

Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize awarded to the author of the best original non-fiction literary work: Supported by Abebooks

Morris Bates and Jim Brown, Morris as Elvis: Take a Chance on Life (Fox Music Books)

Douglas Coupland, Marshall McLuhan (Viking Canada)

Sarah Leavitt, Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me (Freehand Books)

Derek Lundy, Borderlands: Riding the Edge of America (Knopf Canada)

John Vaillant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Knopf Canada)

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize awarded to the author of the best work of poetry:

Supported by the BC Teachers’ Federation

Ken Belford, Decompositions (Talonbooks)

George Bowering, My Darling Nellie Grey (Talonbooks)

Stephen Collis, On the Material (Talonbooks)

Jen Currin, The Inquisition Yours (Coach House Books)

Eve Joseph, The Secret Signature of Things (Brick Books)

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize presented to the best illustrated book written for children: Supported by Kate Walker and Company

Maggie de Vries and Renné Benoit, Fraser Bear: A Cub’s Life (Greystone Books)

Julie Flett, Owls See Clearly at Night (Lii Yiiboo Nayaapiwak lii Swer): A Michif Alphabet (L’alfabet di Michif) (Simply Read Books)

Seiji Hiroe, The Cowboy Fisherman (self published)

Deborah Hodge and Brian Harris, Up We Grow! A Year in the Life of a Small, Local Farm (Kids Can Press)

Ian McAllister and Nicholas Read, The Salmon Bears: Giants of the Great Bear Rainforest (Orca Book Publishers)

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize awarded to the best non-illustrated book written for children: Supported by the BC Library Association

Maggie de Vries, Hunger Journeys (HarperCollins Canada)

Polly Horvath, Northward to the Moon (Groundwood Books)

Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton, Fatty Legs (Annick Press)

Gina McMurchy-Barber, Free as a Bird (Dundurn Press)

Susin Nielsen, Dear George Clooney, Please Marry My Mom (Tundra Books)

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

Supported by the BC Booksellers Association

Robert Budd, Voices of British Columbia: Stories from Our Frontier (Douglas & McIntyre)

Zsuzsi Gartner, editor, Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow (Douglas & McIntyre)

Gary Kent and Kim La Fave, Fishing with Gubby (Harbour Publishing)

Ross King, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven (Douglas & McIntyre)

Grant Lawrence, Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound (Harbour Publishing)

In early April, these nominees — who collectively will receive $14,000 in cash prizes — will be celebrated at a free event, the BC Book Prize Soirée in Vancouver (venue and date TBA in the coming weeks).