Finalists for B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes include Vancouver Islanders

The shortlist for the B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes has been announced, with eight writers from the Vancouver Island area competing for awards.

The West Coast Book Prize Society oversees the awards, which offers cash prizes to winners in eight categories. The gala is set for Sept. 24 at the University Golf Club in Vancouver. Here are the area nominees vying for recognition at the 39th annual event:

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize: Victoria’s Marion Ehrenberg, for The Language of Dreams.

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize: Roy Henry Vickers, for Ben the Sea Lion

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize: Victoria illustrator Julie Flett, for Still This Love Goes On [nomination shared with co-author Buffy Sainte-Marie]

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize: Nanaimo’s Haley Healey (author) and Victoria’s Kimiko Fraser (illustrator), for Her Courage Rises: 50 Trailblazing Women of British Columbia and the Yukon; and Nanaimo’s Susan Juby, for Me Three

Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award: Victoria’s Monique Gray Smith (author), for I Hope / nipakosêyimon [nomination shared with Dolores Greyeyes Sand (translator) and Gabrielle Grimard (illustrator)]; and Robert Joseph, hereditary chief for Vancouver Island’s Kwakwaka’wakw First Nation, for Namwayut: We Are All One: A Pathway to Reconciliation.

For more information, visit bcyukonbookprizes.com.

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