Victoria writer Bill Gaston has won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for his novel, The World.
The award, presented to the author of the best work of fiction, was given at the annual B.C. Book Prizes gala held Saturday night at Government House.
The World is about a man who accidentally burns down his house, then embarks on a life-changing road trip from the West Coast to Toronto.
Gaston, who teaches writing at the University of Victoria, is the author of numerous novels and short-story collections. His fiction has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award and the Giller Prize. He is a winner of the Relit Award, the Victoria/Butler Prize and the CBC Canadian Literary Award.
Other winners at the B.C. Book Prizes Gala:
• Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize: Derek Hayes, British Columbia: A New Historical Atlas.
• Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize: Geoff Meggs and Rod Mickleburgh, The Art of the Impossible: Dave Barrett and the NDP in Power, 1972-1975.
• Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize: Sarah de Leeuw, Geographies of a Lover.
• Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize: Alan Woo and Isabelle Malenfant, Maggie’s Chopsticks.
• Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize: Caroline Adderson, Middle of Nowhere.
• Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award: Shelley Fralic, Making Headlines: 100 Years of The Vancouver Sun. — Adrian Chamberlain
