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VANCOUVER
– The shortlist for the British
Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, one of Canada’s largest
literary awards, was announced today by B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Keith
Mitchell, chair of the British Columbia Achievement Foundation.
Spotlighting
exceptional achievements by Canadian writers, the finalists for the $25,000
prize are Rebecca Godfrey for Under the Bridge, J.B. MacKinnon for Dead Man in
Paradise, John Terpstra for The Boys, or Waiting for the Electrician’s
Daughter, and John Vaillant for The Golden Spruce.
“The
British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction recognizes the tremendous
importance of the genre in our national literature,” said Campbell. “Canadian
non-fiction captures the drama of our history, and provokes discussion of ideas
that will shape our future.”
“It
is a privilege to be able to offer this award,” said Mitchell. “Canada’s
non-fiction writers are making their mark here at home, as well as
internationally, and this award is an opportunity to recognize the country’s
best.”
The
award is an annual national prize established by the British Columbia
Achievement Foundation, an independent foundation endowed by the Province of
British Columbia in 2003 to celebrate excellence and achievement. An
independent jury is responsible for the selection of the finalists and award
winner.
The
winner of the award will be announced on May 26, 2006, in Vancouver.
This
year’s finalists are described in the following citations from the jury:
Rebecca Godfrey for Under the Bridge (HarperCollins)
Under the Bridge is a mesmerizing evocation of the lives
of several teenagers whose suburban vanities
and prejudices combine to
produce the unthinkable: the murder of one among their midst. With measured
prose, beautiful in its starkness, Rebecca Godfrey reconstructs the circumstances of
the murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk, the unravelling of the secret of it, and
the trial and its aftermath.
Godfrey’s depiction of teenage
sentiment, as disturbing as it is compassionate, lingers long
in the mind and the heart.
J.B. MacKinnon for Dead Man in Paradise (Douglas &
McIntyre)
In Dead Man in Paradise,
J.B. MacKinnon sets out to uncover the truth about the killing of an uncle he
never knew, a Canadian
Catholic priest, 40
years earlier in the Dominican Republic. Part socio-cultural adventure, part macabre mystery, part hard-scrabble
travel, the story of his attempts to penetrate the “culture of
impunity” to find those responsible
is told in vivid and urgent language,
and is threaded with implicit moral dilemma, inviting reflections on the
durability of faith and
the realities of the hope for justice in an unbearably unjust world.
John Terpstra for The Boys, or Waiting for the
Electrician’s Daughter (Gaspereau Press)
John Terpstra’s The Boys is a personal account of the short lives of his three
young brothers-in-law, who each
struggled with the gradual but relentless physical deterioration brought
on by muscular dystrophy. It may
sound too painful to read, but with prose that is lyrical and poetic,
Terpstra paints loving portraits of the boys, powerfully evoking the
richness of and humour in their
lives. Through their
story, he brings us
close to that most elusive and profound truth – an understanding of the
meaning and value of our human lives.
John Vaillant for The Golden Spruce (Knopf Canada)
Using as the central tale one man’s destruction of a legendary tree in
the B.C.’s coastal rainforest, The
Golden Spruce makes a profound statement about man’s conflicted
relationship with the wilderness. John Vaillant recreates the teeming life of the natural landscape and
artfully melds it with the story
of man in that setting – as logger, as European explorer, and as the people of
Haida Gwaii (the traditional name for the Queen Charlotte Islands) – while probing the mystery of one man’s
defiant act.
For more information on the
award and this year’s finalists, please call 604 261-9777 or visit us online at
www.bcachievement.com.
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To download images of book
covers and author’s photos for this year’s shortlist, please visit www.bcachievement.com.
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contact: |
Executive Director British Columbia Achievement Foundation 604 261-9777 info@bcachievement.com |
Press Secretary Office of the Premier 250 213-8218 |
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For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca. |
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