Finalists have been announced for the 2023 Victoria Book Prizes, with eight titles in the running for the City of Victoria Children’s Book Prize and City of Victoria Butler Book Prize.
Butler Book Prize nominees include: Maleea Acker, for her poetry collection Hesitating Once to Feel Glory; artist and writer Robert Amos, for E.J. Hughes: Canadian War Artist, which tells the story of Canada’s first, longest serving and most prolific war artist; Mary Bomford, for Red Dust and Cicada Songs in which she tells the story of travelling with her husband to Africa to teach high school students; Pauline Holdstock for Confessions with Keith, a comic novel written in a diary fomat; and Dene, Cree and Métis writer Katłįà (Catherine) Rafferty for This House Is Not a Home, a fictional story based on true events.
The prize, now in its 20th year, is awarded to a Greater Victoria author for the best fiction, non-fiction or poetry book published between April 2022 and March 2023.
Nominees for the Children’s Book Prize, which champions children’s and youth author or illustrators in our community, include: Sara Cassidy, for Union; Monique Gray Smith, for I Hope / nipakosêyimon; and Julie McLaughlin, for Little Pine Cone: Wild Fires and the Natural World.
The eventual winners each receive $5,000, courtesy of the Victoria Book Prize Society and the City of Victoria. The winners will be announced at an Oct. 11 gala, hosted by CBC Radio’s Kathryn Marlow, at the Union Club of British Columbia.
Tickets are $25 and can be purchased online at victoriabookprizes.ca.
