The West Coast Book Prize Society is thrilled to announce the winners of the 40th annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Prizes are awarded annually to recognize the achievements of BC and Yukon authors, illustrators and publishers. Award winners are selected through a juried system, with five finalists in each prize category, including the winner selected in each prize category.
More information about the GG's and Canada Council for the Arts can be found on the BC and Yukon Book Prizes website.
We hope you enjoy these books! Please check out all the 2024 nominations we have in our collection, as well as wonderful books from previous years: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.
BC and Yukon Book Prizes 2022
Here is the list of the 2024 BC and Yukon Book Prizes winners:
Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize
Darrel J. McLeod, A Season in Chezgh’un (Douglas & McIntyre)
Please request this book from your local public library. If you can't find it, please contact us.
A subversive novel by acclaimed Cree author Darrel J. McLeod, infused with the contradictory triumph and pain of finding conventional success in a world that feels alien. James, a talented and conflicted Cree man from a tiny settlement in Northern Alberta, has settled into a comfortable middle-class life in Kitsilano, a trendy neighborhood of Vancouver. He is living the life he had once dreamed of--travel, a charming circle of sophisticated friends, a promising career and a loving relationship with a caring man--but he chafes at being assimilated into mainstream society, removed from his people and culture. The untimely death of James's mother, his only link to his extended family and community, propels him into a quest to reconnect with his roots. He secures a job as a principal in a remote northern Dakelh community but quickly learns that life there isn't the fix he'd hoped it would be: His encounters with poverty, cultural disruption and abuse conjure ghosts from his past that drive him toward self-destruction. During the single year he spends in northern BC, James takes solace in the richness of the Dakelh culture--the indomitable spirit of the people, and the splendor of nature--all the while fighting to keep his dark side from destroying his life.
Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize
John Vaillant, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast (Knopf Canada)
This title is available through NNELS in EPUB3, MP3 and DAISY Audio formats.
A stunning account of the colossal wildfire at Fort McMurray, and a panoramic exploration of the rapidly changing relationship between fire and humankind from the award-winning, best-selling author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce . Named a Best Book of the Year by The Guardian - TIME - The Globe and Mail - The New Yorker - Financial Times - CBC - Smithsonian - Air Mail Weekly - Slate - NPR - Toronto Star - The Washington Post - The Times - Orion Magazine In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada's petroleum industry and America's biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighborhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon. Through the lens of this apocalyptic conflagration-the wildfire equivalent of Hurricane Katrina-John Vaillant warns that this was not a unique event but a shocking preview of what we must prepare for in a hotter, more flammable world. For hundreds of millennia, fire has been a partner in our evolution, shaping culture, civilization, and, very likely, our brains. Fire has enabled us to cook our food, defend and heat our homes, and power the machines that drive our titanic economy. Yet this volatile energy source has always threatened to elude our control, and in our new age of intensifying climate change, we are seeing its destructive power unleashed in previously unimaginable ways. With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America's oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters. John Vaillant's urgent work is a book for-and from-our new century of fire, which has only just begun.
Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize
Jess Housty, Crushed Wild Mint (Nightwood Editions)
This title is available through NNELS in EPUB3.
Crushed Wild Mint achieves a generosity of kindness and humanity. Housty’s poems welcome readers, in all our frailties, as they share observances of familial and community love with a gentleness whose power surprises us and leaves us changed. Housty’s poems feed us rose petals slowly. They invite us up mountains and into the ocean of their homelands, allowing our imaginations to more clearly understand what reciprocity might mean.
Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize
Ian Kennedy, The Best Loved Boat: The Princess Maquinna (Harbour Publishing)
This title is available through NNELS in EPUB3, MP3 and DAISY Audio formats.
Built in 1913, the Canadian Pacific Railway's ship Princess Maquinna steamed up and down the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island in summer and winter, calm weather and storms, for over forty years, and has become one of the most beloved boats in BC's maritime history. Princess Maquinna, sometimes referred to as the "Ugly Princess" but most often "Old Faithful," transported Indigenous people, settlers, missionaries, loggers, cannery workers, prospectors and travellers of all kinds up and down Vancouver Island's rugged and dangerous west coast, stopping at up to forty ports of call on her seven-day run. The Princess Maquinna faithfully served as the lifeline for all those who lived on the west coast of Vancouver Island before it became accessible by roads. Because of this strong connection she became the "Best Loved Boat" in BC's maritime history. Kennedy recounts battles through eighty-knot gales along the exposed coastline sailors called "The Graveyard of the Pacific," and reveals the bigotry that forced Indigenous and Chinese passengers to remain on the foredeck of the ship while other passengers sheltered from the elements inside. He brings the history of this beloved ship to life with rich detail, recalling a time when this remote part of British Columbia was alive with mines, canneries and now-forgotten settlements.
Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize
Wanda John-Kehewin, Hopeless in Hope (HighWater Press)
This title is available through NNELS in EPUB3 and DAISY Audio formats.
Fourteen-year-old Eva's life is like her shoes: rapidly falling apart. With Nohkum in the hospital, Eva's mother struggles to keep things together and loses custody of Eva and her little brother. As Eva tries to adjust to living in a group home, can she find forgiveness for her mother within the pages of an old diary?
Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize
Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith (Illustrator), My Baba’s Garden (Neal Porter Books)
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My Baba’s Garden is a beautiful exploration of a young boy’s daily visits with his Polish grandmother, based on Jordan Scott’s own childhood. Although the boy does not always understand what his Baba does, or why, the poetic text and gouache-and-watercolor illustrations let readers interpret interactions and images in their own way. Scott’s quiet storytelling combined with Smith’s rich, warm, and gentle illustrations, culminate in an introspective narrative that celebrates intergenerational relationships and the power of communication that transcends language barriers. This is a picture book that resonates with children and adults alike!
Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes
Helen Knott, Becoming a Matriarch: A Memoir (Knopf Canada)
Available from NNELS in EPUB, MP3, and DAISY Audio formats.
When matriarchs begin to disappear, there is a choice to either step into the places they left behind, or to craft a new space. Helen Knott's debut memoir, In My Own Moccasins, wowed reviewers, award juries, and readers alike with its profoundly honest and moving account of addiction, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and survival. Now, in her highly anticipated second book, Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love, and legacy. Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months, forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom, and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was. Woven into the pages are themes of mourning, sobriety through loss, and generational dreaming. Becoming a Matriarch is charted with poetic insights, sass, humour, and heart, taking the reader over the rivers and mountains of Dane Zaa territory in Northeastern British Columbia, along the cobbled streets of Antigua, Guatemala, and straight to the heart of what matriarchy truly means. This is a journey through pain, on the way to becoming.
Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award
Jess Housty, Crushed Wild Mint (Nightwood Editions)
Please request this book from your local public library. If you can't find it, please contact us.
Crushed Wild Mint achieves a generosity of kindness and humanity. Housty’s poems welcome readers, in all our frailties, as they share observances of familial and community love with a gentleness whose power surprises us and leaves us changed. Housty’s poems feed us rose petals slowly. They invite us up mountains and into the ocean of their homelands, allowing our imaginations to more clearly understand what reciprocity might mean.
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In addition to the eight awards for the annual prize categories, two awards were also awarded to writers for their body of work and contributions to the literary community:
Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence: Keith Maillard
The recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence will be recognized as having written a substantial body of literary work throughout their career and contributed significantly to the literary community/industry of the Province of British Columbia.
Keith Maillard is the author of fifteen novels, a book of poetry, and two memoirs. Twelve of his titles have been shortlisted for or won literary prizes. He continues to write and mentor the next generation of writers through his work as an influential teacher and mentor at UBC’s School of Creative Writing. He champions the craft of writing and works to uplift new voices. He has had a profound influence on writers and his students/mentees all speak of a specific kindness and generosity, a genuine willingness to find what a writer needs to say and to help them hone their unique style and voice.
Borealis Prize: The Commissioner of Yukon Award for Literary Contribution: Lhù’áán Mân Ye Shäw (Kluane First Nation Elders)
The recipient of the Borealis Prize will be recognized as having spent significant time living and working among the writing community in Yukon and made substantial contributions to the Yukon writing and publishing community through writing, publishing, community organizing, Indigenous writing and storytelling, or in many other ways.
These prize-winning authors and publishers were honoured at the 40th annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes Gala, which was held at the University Golf Club in Vancouver. The ceremony was hosted by poet Jillian Christmas
The BC and Yukon Book Prizes were established in 1985 to celebrate the achievements of BC and Yukon writers and publishers. The prizes are administered and awarded by a non-profit society that represents all facets of the publishing and writing community. The West Coast Book Prize Society congratulates all the winners!