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BC BOOK PRIZES 21ST ANNIVERSARY
Bun toss comes of age
The glass is half empty. The glass is half full. Now operated under the aegis of the Lieutenant Governor's office, complete with mandatory forelock pulling and a toast to the Queen, the 21-year-old BC Book Prizes gala is more impressive to some, less fun to others.
"I remember well the first awards,"; noted semi-retiring CTV talk show host Vicki Gabereau, reappearing to host the affair after a 21-year interim. "You were all a lot drunker than you are now.";
With a minimum of self-deprecating wit, Gabereau ably noted the deaths of Pierre Berton and CBC's David Grierson while playing second fiddle to Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo. The evening climaxed with Campagnolo's hymn of praise for the "sheer raw courage"; of Robert Bringhurst, winner of the second annual Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence.
"It is impossible to imagine a more worthy recipient,"; cooed the LG, who engineered the prize to honour the creator of a body of work who is deemed to exhibit mastery of the written word. Poet and editor Bringhurst thanked "cantankerous"; bookseller Bill Hoffer, Vic Marks ("one of the most reclusive publishers in British Columbia";) and his long-time publisher Scott McIntyre, adding, "It might come as a surprise to you that part of the value of winning a prize like this is the money that comes with it."; [Judged by Celia Duthie, Daniel Francis & last year's recipient P.K. Page]
The most memorable acceptance speech was made by former Department of Fisheries employee Otto Langer, one of six co-authors of A Stain Upon the Sea, an anti-fish farming volume from Harbour Publishing that won the Roderick Haig-Brown Prize for best book about the province. [Judged by Richard Hopkins, Theresa Kishkan & Rosemary Neering]
"Above all, I'd like to thank my ex-employers because without their incompetence this book would not have been possible,"; Langer said. "And I would like to thank the fish farms and the multi-national corporations because without their greed this book would not have been possible."; Langer concluded by urging the audience to always ask if their salmon is farmed or wild.
Another dark horse recipient was novelist Pauline Holdstock who took home the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Beyond Measure (Cormorant). "I immigrated to B.C. twice,"; she said, "and I'm really glad I stayed the second time."; [Judged by John Burns, John Harris & David Watmough]
Two rising stars of the Canlit scene, Susan Juby and Charles Montgomery, received the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize respectively for Miss Smithers (Harpercollins) and The Last Heathen (Douglas & McIntyre). [Egoff judges Carolyn Cutt, Bill Valgardson & Irene Watts; Evans judges Lynne Bowen, George Fetherling & Maria Tippett]
"This kind of makes up for the fact that I failed miserably in the Miss Smithers beauty contest,"; Juby said. Fresh from winning the lucrative Charles Taylor Prize, Montgomery thanked his friend Michael Scott, editor Saeko Usukawa and publisher Scott McIntyre.
For the first time a B.C.-published book, Goodbye to Griffith Street (Orca), illustrated by Renné Benoit of Ontario and written by Marilyn Reynolds of Victoria, received the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Prize. [Judged by Barbara Nichol, Andrea Spalding & Ron Lightburn]
Another multi-author title from Harbour Publishing, Birds of the Raincoast: Habits and Habitat, received the newly renamed BC Booksellers' Choice Award in Honour of Bill Duthie, as selected by the membership of the BC Booksellers Association.
Jan Zwicky was not present to receive the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for Robinson's Crossing (Brick Books). [Judged by Brad Cran, Crispin Elsted & Angela Hryniuk]
Billeh Nickerson was a breath of fresh air presenting the Livesay Prize. For the most part, presenters out-shone recipients in speechifying. Alan Haig-Brown recalled his father with a quote from John Steinbeck; Stephen Osborne gave an astute appreciation of Hubert Evans; Janice Douglas touted equal rights for children's literature; Women In Print bookseller Carol Dale recalled Bill Duthie. "Mr. D., to many of us,"; she said, "was a mentor to so many in this industry, not just booksellers.";
In recalling the collective history of the B.C. book community, Dale noted the BC Book Prizes were an outgrowth of the Eaton's Book Award, a singular prize that was presented in a basement. Now there are twice as many prizes as there were in 1985, when Gabereau emceed the first bun toss on Granville Island, but half as many laughs.
Such is adulthood.
It adds up to social progress. In one of the best speeches of the evening, Ottawa bureaucrat Gordon Platt reported the findings from a recent federal survey on reading habits, yet to be released, that reveal book reading habits in Canada are "rock solid."; Whereas only 50% of people in the U.S. have read a book in the past year, 80% of Canadians have read a book in the past year. "British Columbians score the highest,"; Platt said. "90% of British Columbians read a book last year. It's the most book friendly and literate place probably on the planet.";
The glass is half empty. The glass is half full. Now operated under the aegis of the Lieutenant Governor's office, complete with mandatory forelock pulling and a toast to the Queen, the 21-year-old BC Book Prizes gala is more impressive to some, less fun to others.
"I remember well the first awards,"; noted semi-retiring CTV talk show host Vicki Gabereau, reappearing to host the affair after a 21-year interim. "You were all a lot drunker than you are now.";
With a minimum of self-deprecating wit, Gabereau ably noted the deaths of Pierre Berton and CBC's David Grierson while playing second fiddle to Lieutenant Governor Iona Campagnolo. The evening climaxed with Campagnolo's hymn of praise for the "sheer raw courage"; of Robert Bringhurst, winner of the second annual Lieutenant Governor's Award for Literary Excellence.
"It is impossible to imagine a more worthy recipient,"; cooed the LG, who engineered the prize to honour the creator of a body of work who is deemed to exhibit mastery of the written word. Poet and editor Bringhurst thanked "cantankerous"; bookseller Bill Hoffer, Vic Marks ("one of the most reclusive publishers in British Columbia";) and his long-time publisher Scott McIntyre, adding, "It might come as a surprise to you that part of the value of winning a prize like this is the money that comes with it."; [Judged by Celia Duthie, Daniel Francis & last year's recipient P.K. Page]
The most memorable acceptance speech was made by former Department of Fisheries employee Otto Langer, one of six co-authors of A Stain Upon the Sea, an anti-fish farming volume from Harbour Publishing that won the Roderick Haig-Brown Prize for best book about the province. [Judged by Richard Hopkins, Theresa Kishkan & Rosemary Neering]
"Above all, I'd like to thank my ex-employers because without their incompetence this book would not have been possible,"; Langer said. "And I would like to thank the fish farms and the multi-national corporations because without their greed this book would not have been possible."; Langer concluded by urging the audience to always ask if their salmon is farmed or wild.
Another dark horse recipient was novelist Pauline Holdstock who took home the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Beyond Measure (Cormorant). "I immigrated to B.C. twice,"; she said, "and I'm really glad I stayed the second time."; [Judged by John Burns, John Harris & David Watmough]
Two rising stars of the Canlit scene, Susan Juby and Charles Montgomery, received the Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize and the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize respectively for Miss Smithers (Harpercollins) and The Last Heathen (Douglas & McIntyre). [Egoff judges Carolyn Cutt, Bill Valgardson & Irene Watts; Evans judges Lynne Bowen, George Fetherling & Maria Tippett]
"This kind of makes up for the fact that I failed miserably in the Miss Smithers beauty contest,"; Juby said. Fresh from winning the lucrative Charles Taylor Prize, Montgomery thanked his friend Michael Scott, editor Saeko Usukawa and publisher Scott McIntyre.
For the first time a B.C.-published book, Goodbye to Griffith Street (Orca), illustrated by Renné Benoit of Ontario and written by Marilyn Reynolds of Victoria, received the Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Prize. [Judged by Barbara Nichol, Andrea Spalding & Ron Lightburn]
Another multi-author title from Harbour Publishing, Birds of the Raincoast: Habits and Habitat, received the newly renamed BC Booksellers' Choice Award in Honour of Bill Duthie, as selected by the membership of the BC Booksellers Association.
Jan Zwicky was not present to receive the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for Robinson's Crossing (Brick Books). [Judged by Brad Cran, Crispin Elsted & Angela Hryniuk]
Billeh Nickerson was a breath of fresh air presenting the Livesay Prize. For the most part, presenters out-shone recipients in speechifying. Alan Haig-Brown recalled his father with a quote from John Steinbeck; Stephen Osborne gave an astute appreciation of Hubert Evans; Janice Douglas touted equal rights for children's literature; Women In Print bookseller Carol Dale recalled Bill Duthie. "Mr. D., to many of us,"; she said, "was a mentor to so many in this industry, not just booksellers.";
In recalling the collective history of the B.C. book community, Dale noted the BC Book Prizes were an outgrowth of the Eaton's Book Award, a singular prize that was presented in a basement. Now there are twice as many prizes as there were in 1985, when Gabereau emceed the first bun toss on Granville Island, but half as many laughs.
Such is adulthood.
It adds up to social progress. In one of the best speeches of the evening, Ottawa bureaucrat Gordon Platt reported the findings from a recent federal survey on reading habits, yet to be released, that reveal book reading habits in Canada are "rock solid."; Whereas only 50% of people in the U.S. have read a book in the past year, 80% of Canadians have read a book in the past year. "British Columbians score the highest,"; Platt said. "90% of British Columbians read a book last year. It's the most book friendly and literate place probably on the planet.";
Submitted on November 9, 2005 in By David.
