The West Coast Book Prize Society has revealed the shortlist for the 40th Annual BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Authors, poets, and journalists across eight categories have been nominated in the best of BC and Yukon writing.

The winners will be announced at the BC and Yukon Book Prizes Gala on September 28 in Vancouver. There, the recipient of the 2024 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence and the Borealis Prize: The Commissioner of Yukon Award for Literary Contribution, will also be revealed.

Included in the running for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, celebrating excellence in literary fiction, are Darrel J. McLeod’s A Season in Chezgh’un and Hazel Jane Plante’s Any Other City.

The nominees for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, which recognizes literary non-fiction, include Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World and Helen Knott’s Becoming a Matriarch.

Becoming a Matriarch was also shortlisted in the Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes, which is meant to be “presented to a book that challenges or provokes ideas and forces that shape what writing, art, and/or society can become,” along with Vancouver-based journalist Angela Sterritt’s Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls.

The Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize recognizes “the book that contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia and Yukon,” with shortlisted titles such as Jennifer Bonnell’s Stewards of Splendour touching on the region’s history and environment.

Vancouver-based poet Samantha Nock’s A Family of Dreamers was nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize alongside Dominique Bernier-Cormier’s Entre Rive and Shore and Jess Housty’s Crushed Wild Mint. 

From May until September, some of the shortlisted authors will hit the road with the BC and Yukon Book Prizes On Tour, visiting schools and communities across the province and territory.

The public is invited to join the shortlisted authors in kicking off the summer at Book Warehouse (632 West Broadway) on May 16 at 6:30pm, with finalists’ books available to purchase.

Here is a full list of the nominees.

Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize awarded to the author of the best work of literary fiction

• Darrel J. McLeod, A Season in Chezgh’un (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Geoffrey D. Morrison, Falling Hour (Coach House Books)
• Hazel J. Plante, Any Other City (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Brandon Reid, Beautiful Beautiful (Nightwood Editions)
• Chelsea Wakelyn, What Remains of Elsie Jane (Dundurn Press)

Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize awarded to the author of the best original non-fiction literary work

• Colleen Brown, If you lie down in a field, she will find you there (Radiant Press)
• Naomi Klein, Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (Knopf Canada)
• Helen Knott, Becoming a Matriarch (Knopf Canada)
• Emelia Symington-Fedy, Skid Dogs (Douglas & McIntyre)
• John Vaillant, Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast (Vintage Canada)

Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize to recognize the author(s) of the book that contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia and Yukon

• Jennifer Bonnell, Stewards of Splendour: A History of Wildlife and People in British Columbia (Royal BC Museum Publications)
• Ian Kennedy, The Best Loved Boat: The Princess Maquinna (Harbour Publishing)
• Wayne McCrory, The Wild Horses of the Chilcotin: Their History and Future (Harbour Publishing)
• David Norwell, A Complex Coast: A Kayak Journey from Vancouver Island to Alaska (Heritage House)
• Katherine Palmer Gordon, This Place Is Who We Are: Stories of Indigenous Leadership, Resilience, and Connection to Homelands (Harbour Publishing)

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize awarded to the author of the best work of poetry

• Dominique Bernier-Cormier, Entre Rive and Shore (icehouse poetry)
• Jess Housty, Crushed Wild Mint (Nightwood Editions)
• Samantha Nock, A Family of Dreamers (Talonbooks)
• Bradley Peters, Sonnets from a Cell (Brick Books)
• Cathy Stonehouse, Dream House (Nightwood Editions)

Jim Deva Prize for Writing That Provokes presented to a book that challenges or provokes ideas and forces that shape what writing, art, and/or society can become

• Helen Knott, Becoming a Matriarch (Knopf Canada)
• Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, JAJ: A Haida Manga (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Angela Sterritt, Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls (Greystone Books)
• Y-Dang Troeung, Landbridge: Life in fragments (Alchemy by Knopf Canada)
• Lindsay Wong, Tell Me Pleasant Things about Immortality: Stories (Penguin Canada)

Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize presented to the best illustrated book written for children

• E. G. Alaraj (Author), Martyna Czub (Illustrator), When Stars Arise (Orca Book Publishers)
• Kirsten Pendreigh (Author), Crystal Smith (Illustrator), Maybe A Whale (Groundwood Books)
• David A. Robertson (Author), Maya McKibben (Illustrator), The Song That Called Them Home (Tundra Books)
• Lorna Schultz Nicholson (Author), Ellen Rooney (Illustrator), What to Bring (Owlkids)
• Jordan Scott (Author), Sydney Smith (Illustrator), My Baba’s Garden (Neal Porter Books)

Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize awarded to the best non-illustrated book written for children

• Janis Bridger and Lara Jean Okihiro, Obaasan’s Boots (Second Story Press)
• Polly Horvath, Pine Island Visitors (Puffin Canada)
• Wanda John-Kehewin, Hopeless in Hope (HighWater Press)
• Julie Lawson, Out of the Dark (Nimbus Publishing)
• Andrea Warner (Author), Louise Reimer (Illustrator), Rise Up and Sing! Power, Protest, and Activism in Music (Greystone Books)

Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award presented to the originating publisher and author(s) of the best book in terms of public appeal, initiative, design, production, and content

• Sam George, with Jill Yonit Goldberg, Liam Belson, Dylan MacPhee, and Tanis Wilson, The Fire Still Burns: Life In and After Residential School (UBC Press, Purich Books)
• Jess Housty, Crushed Wild Mint (Nightwood Editions)
• Francine McCabe, Fleece and Fibre: Textile Producers of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands (Heritage House)
• Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, JAJ: A Haida Manga (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Henry Tsang, White Riot: The 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver (Arsenal Pulp Press)