The West Coast Book Society has announced the finalists for the 2023 B.C. and Yukon Book Prizes. This year, all titles are from British Columbia. The winners of each of the eight categories will be announced at a gala in Vancouver on September 24.
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
Marion Ehrenberg, The Language of Dreams (Friesen Press)
Billy-Ray Belcourt, A Minor Chorus (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Random House Canada)
Tsering Yangzom Lama, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)
Janice Lynn Mather, Uncertain Kin (Doubleday Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
Danny Ramadan, The Foghorn Echoes (Viking/Penguin Random House Canada)
Hubert Evans Nonfiction Prize
Karen Bakker, The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants (Princeton University Press)
Lyndsie Bourgon, Tree Thieves: Crime and Survival in North America’s Woods (Greystone Books)
Michael J. Hathaway, What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make (Princeton University Press)
Harrison Mooney, Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery (Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins Canada)
Jody Wilson-Raybould, True Reconciliation: How to Be a Force for Change (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)
Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize
Dempsey Bob and Sarah Milroy (ed.), Dempsey Bob: In His Own Voice (Figure 1 Publishing)
Erika Dyck and Jesse Donaldson, The Acid Room: The Psychedelic Trials and Tribulations of Hollywood Hospital (Anvil Press)
Caitlin Gordon-Walker (ed.), Pam Brown, Jisgang Nika Collison, Anthony Alan Shelton, and Jodi Simkin (curators), in collaboration with the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Knowledge Within: Treasures of the Northwest Coast (Figure 1 Publishing)
Cole Pauls, Kwändǖr (Conundrum Press)
Roy Henry Vickers, Ben the Sea Lion (Harbour Publishing)
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, A is for Acholi (Wolsak & Wynn)
Megan Fennya Jones, The Program (Goose Lane Editions)
Cecily Nicholson, HARROWINGS (Talonbooks)
Tolu Oloruntoba, Each One a Furnace (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)
Sheryda Warrener, Test Piece (Coach House Books)
Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes
Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, A is for Acholi (Wolsak & Wynn)
Michael J. Hathaway, What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make (Princeton University Press)
Tsering Yangzom Lama, We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies (McClelland & Stewart/PRHC)
Harrison Mooney, Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery (Patrick Crean Editions/HCP)
Y-Dang Troeung, Refugee Lifeworlds: The Afterlife of the Cold War in Cambodia (Temple University Press)
Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize
Linda Bailey and Isabelle Follath (ill.), Arthur Who Wrote Sherlock (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada)
Nathan Fairbairn and Michele Assarasakorn (ill.), PAWS: Mindy Makes Some Space (Razorbill/Penguin Random House Canada)
Guojing, The Flamingo (Random House Studio/Penguin Random House Canada)
Buffy Sainte-Marie and Julie Flett (ill.), Still This Love Goes On (Greystone Books)
Jessika Von Innerebner, That’s My Sweater! (Scholastic Canada Ltd)
Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize
Haley Healey and Kimiko Fraser (ill.), Her Courage Rises: 50 Trailblazing Women of British Columbia and the Yukon (Heritage House Publishing)
Rachel Hartman, In the Serpent’s Wake (Penguin Teen Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
Susan Juby, Me Three (Puffin Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
Emily Seo and Gracey Zhang (ill.), The Science of Boys (Tradewind Books)
Kim Spencer, Weird Rules to Follow (Orca Book Publishers)
Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award
Monique Gray Smith, Dolores Greyeyes Sand (trans.), and Gabrielle Grimard (ill.), I Hope /nipakosêyimon (Orca Book Publishers)
Chief Robert Joseph, Namwayut: We Are All One: A Pathway to Reconciliation (Page Two Books)
Grant Lawrence, Return to Solitude: More Desolation Sound Adventures with the Cougar Lady, Russell the Hermit, the Spaghetti Bandit and Others (Harbour Publishing)
Eve Lazarus, Cold Case BC: The Stories behind the Province’s Most Intriguing Murder and Missing Persons Cases (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Gary Wyatt with Robert Davidson, Echoes of the Supernatural: The Graphic Art of Robert Davidson (Figure 1 Publishing)
