The most recent effort from Sooke author Darrel J. McLeod, who died last month at the age of 67 following a brief illness, has won top prize at the 2024 B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes.
McLeod’s A Season in Chezgh’un was awarded the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, one of eight trophies handed out Saturday during a gala at the University Golf Club in Vancouver.
The beloved Cree author was one of three Vancouver Island writers to receive awards at the West Coast Book Prize Society’s 40th annual event, which celebrates the achievements of B.C. and Yukon authors, illustrators and publishers.
Comox author Ian Kennedy took home the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize for his book The Best Loved Boat: The Princess Maquinna. The prize recognizes an author whose work contributes to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia and Yukon.
Royston-based poet and author Jordan Scott, meanwhile, nabbed the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize for his collaboration with Halifax illustrator Sydney Smith, My Baba’s Garden.
A total of 11 authors and illustrators from the Vancouver Island area were in contention for the book prizes this year, the most local nominees since the prizes were founded in 1985.
