When it comes to book prizes, emotional tampering is common. A judge for the Booker Prize once threatened to jump out of a window if Paul Scott's novel Staying On didn't win Britain's top fiction award. It won.
When Federico Andahazi won Argentina's top literary prize, the Fortabat, the wealthy, 72-year-old 'cement heiress' who sponsors the award, Amalia Locrosse de Fortabat, became incensed to learn the winning novel concerned the 'discovery' of the clitoris. She denounced Mr. Andahazi as "communist porn artist."; The Argentinian prize ceremony was cancelled. The jury stood its ground. The winner's cheque for $16,000 was reportedly slipped under Mr. Andahazi's door. His sales skyrocketed.
When she was judging the Roderick Haig-Brown Prize for 1987, Ann Haig-Brown, the author's widow, threatened the other two judges and the organizers by saying she would come to Vancouver and personally denounce the procedures if a certain journalist, whose book was less than flattering to her husband but was favoured to win by the other two judges, was given the Haig-Brown Prize. Intimidated by this fierce opposition, the two other judges reneged on their decision and the prize that year ended up going to an American who was technically ineligible because she wasn't a B.C. resident.
It's an imperfect world.

Judges for the B.C. Book Prizes need no longer fear tantrums or bullying. A simple mathematical system, in place since 1992, now accords points to each judge's top five picks. No fisticuffs or filibusters, just fairness.

This year's judges for the Haig-Brown Regional Prize panel are former head of UBC Special Collections Anne Yandle; longtime host of Radio Canada in Vancouver, Elizabeth Roux; and former Edmonton Journal books editor Lynne Van Luven, Director of Professional Writing at UVic's Department of Writing.

On the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize panel are UVic Bookstore manager Sarah Harvey; founding co-publisher of Rungh magazine, Zool Suleman; and last year's recipient Marilyn Bowering, whose novel Visible Worlds is appearing in American, British, Finnish, Greek and German editions. Bowering's Collected Poems project, with a CD, will appear from BeachHolme.

On the non-fiction panel are former Province editor Geoffrey Molyneux; coastal author Vicki Jensen; and New Society author Don Gayton, winner of the 1997 National Outdoor Book Award. Gayton, who lives in Nelson, is now working on a new book about the land-locked Kokanee for New Star's Transmontanus series, plus he's completing a collection of nature-related short stories to be called Man Facing West.

Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize judges are poet Sandy Shreve, coordinator of the Poetry in Transit project; award-winning poet and fiction writer George McWhirter, former chair of UBC's Creative Writing Dept.; and award-winning poet, editor, critic and BCBW columnist Gary Geddes.

Sheila Egoff Children's Prize judges are Richmond librarian Andreé Duval, chair of YACS (Young Adult and Children's Services division of the BCLA); former bookseller Ruth Meta, coordinator of the second annual Spread The Word literary celebration in Strathcona; and Nanaimo-based Native Studies educator Ellen White, author of Kwulasulwut, Stories From The Coast Salish.

The winning publisher and author of the Bill Duthie B.C. Booksellers' Choice award are selected by a ballot sent to the membership of the B.C. Booksellers Association.

[BCBW WINTER 1998]