Winners of the Victoria Book Prizes were announced Wednesday, with authors Kathryn Mockler and Raina Delisle earning top honours.
Mockler won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, which recognizes the year’s best fiction, non-fiction, or poetry book by a writer from the Capital Regional District, for Anecdotes. Delisle took home the City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize, which celebrates the best book published in the children’s and youth literature genre by an author from the Capital Regional District, for Breaking News: Why Media Matters.
Both winners were chosen from more than 50 books published between April 2023 and March 2024 by a jury from the local literary arts community. Each author receives $5,000 as part of their award.
The winners were announced by Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto and co-sponsor Brian Butler during a gala at the Union Club of British Columbia on Wednesday night. “Both winners of this year’s City of Victoria book prizes demonstrate an acute awareness of the society we inhabit and the need for individual engagement,” said Lynne Van Luven, president of the Victoria Book Prize Society, which produces the event.
“Kathryn Mockler’s stories in Anecdotes address feminism and difference. Raina Delisle’s Breaking News gives young readers a vital education about the challenges of today’s media.”
In addition to Anecdotes, Mockler has authored five books of poetry and teaches screenwriting and fiction in the writing department at the University of Victoria. Delisle has worked in journalism and government communications. Her first book, Fashion Forward: Striving for Sustainable Style, was published in 2022.
