BC writers
Tiger tale takes richest non-fiction prize
By Marsha Lederman, The Globe and Mail, Monday, January 31, 2011 John Vaillant’s real-life thriller about a man-eating Siberian tiger has won Canada’s richest prize for non-fiction. The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival was named the winner of British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction on Monday. The prize is worth $40,000. [...]
Kootenay Literary Competition
Get your words on. The Kootenay Literary Competition — presented by the Kootenay Literary Competition Committee — is now open to any residents of the Kootenay region. Kootenay Literary Competition 2010 theme: isolation. Contestants should explore this theme in their original work.
Vancouver: Mayor’s Art Awards recipients make personal connection, Established and emerging artists honoured at annual arts bash
Evelyn Lau doesn’t have an email address. So when the Governor General Award-nominated writer mentored Kaitlin Fontana through the University of B.C.’s Booming Ground creative writing program, Lau sent Fontana feedback in old-fashioned letters. But two years later, when Lau read Fontana’s short memoir “The Flight Album” in the Canadian magazine The Walrus, about interning [...]
Books on Pickton, Richler vie for B.C. prize
Journalist Stevie Cameron’s recounting of the Robert Pickton murders and a new biography of late Montreal writer Mordecai Richler by Charles Foran are among the books nominated for Canada’s richest non-fiction prize. British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-fiction is open to writers across the country and comes with a $40,000 prize. A jury has [...]
B.C. children’s authors finalists for Governor General’s Awards: In an effort to grow an online community of readers, The Sun introduces a virtual book club that will meet once a month, online
Three B.C. children’s authors are finalists for this year’s Governor General’s Literary Awards: K.L. Denman of Powell River, for Me, Myself and Ike, Surrey’s Gina McMurchy-Barber, for Free as a Bird, and Richmond’s Wendy Phillips, for Fishtailing. Nominated for illustration of children’s literature are Kristi Bridgeman of Victoria, who brought to life the P.K. Page [...]
Whistler: Writers Fest wraps, reports jump in attendance
After three days of wordplay — read, written and spoken – the ninth annual Whistler Readers and Writers Festival wrapped up last weekend and organizers are reporting some promising numbers. A total of 203 people participated in this year’s festival, traveling from as far away as the UK to attend the event: that represents a [...]
First poet laureate to read in Sechelt
George Bowering, Canada’s first poet laureate, will read in Sechelt on Oct. 30. Bowering has been a leading figure in Canadian Literature since the days of Tish magazine in the ‘60s, when a small group of young poets at the University of British Columbia set out to change Canadian poetry — and did. Equally innovative [...]
Summerland to host Ryga Award
This year, a writing prize named in honour of George Ryga will be presented in the town where he did most of his writing. The eighth annual George Ryga Award will be announced at Centre Stage Theatre in Summerland on Nov. 6, the last day of George Ryga Week. From 1962 until his death in [...]
B.C. art book wins Vancouver Book Award
Visions of British Columbia: A Landscape Manual, a book that gathers work by dozens of B.C. visual and literary artists, has won the City of Vancouver Book Award. Mayor Gregor Robertson presented the $2,000 prize to editor Scott Steedman at a city council meeting Wednesday. Steedman, a freelance editor and author, shares the award with [...]
Q&A: Hal Wake, artistic director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival
Founded by Alma Lee over two decades ago, the Vancouver International Writers Festival has grown into one of the continent’s finest and largest literary festivals. Starting Tuesday and running until October 24, the 23rd edition of the festival is expected to draw an audience of over 14,000 to Granville Island, as writers including David Grossman, Yann [...]
Diversity key to the Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival, Variety of programming has boosted membership of annual event
Like a stable investment portfolio, the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival has looked to diversity as a means to success. “We are still waiting to understand the full consequence of the funding cuts. As you know, the money has been taken away and sometimes it’s given back. You have to be prepared,” said the [...]
Vancouver book scene reshaped by online communities
In the boardroom of D&M Publishers’ office in Mount Pleasant, digital assets and foreign rights director Jesse Finkelstein turns the pages of one of the company’s latest digital publications on a Kobo e-book reader. The book, Voices of British Columbia by Robert Budd, captures the oral histories of B.C. pioneers. The digital edition is formatted to read [...]
Vancouver’s storyteller: Prolific writer and broadcaster Chuck Davis has made Vancouver the focus of his writing. Faced with a dire cancer prognosis, he hopes another writer will complete what may be his final exploration of the city he loves
Standing on the stage of the Vancouver Playhouse, seemingly oblivious to the spotlight but completely attentive to the near-capacity audience, Chuck Davis labours for breath between sentences. “You’d never know from my voice I used to be a staff announcer at CBC,” he says, referring to the fluid in his lungs. The crowd turns sombre, [...]
City announces shortlist for Vancouver Book Award
The city of Vancouver has shortlisted four books for the 2010 Vancouver Book Award. The finalists are: The Box, by George Bowering. Ten stories are introduced by archival photographs. Visions of British Columbia, by Bruce Grenville and Scott Steedman. Images by notable B.C. artists are paired with texts from acclaimed B.C. writers. Common Ground in [...]
Moving Words: How Poetry Got on the Bus BC’s Poetry in Transit program launches this year’s poems for public transit
Jostled by incoming and outgoing passengers at the end of the day, it seems that you have been standing forever in the packed bus. You glance at your fellow commuters talking, texting, napping, or staring out the window, and then look up. In the midst of the usual ads is a single poem, several lines [...]
