Mayor Sam Sullivan will officially proclaim Author Appreciation Day in the City of Vancouver on June 10, 2006, in conjunction with the presentation to renowned B.C. author Jack Hodgins of the 12th Annual Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award for an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. This is Hodgins' second major award of the year, having received the Lieutenant Governor's Award for Excellence in April 2006. "Terasen Gas is pleased to be able to recognize outstanding literary careers such as that of Jack Hodgins," said Amy Hennessy, Terasen Gas community relations manager. "Great B.C. authors like Jack Hodgins not only contribute to the arts, but inspire the province's youth to develop their own literary skills." Born on October 3, 1938 in B.C.'s Comox Valley, Jack Hodgins was raised on a 'stump ranch' at Merville, an soldier settlement located between Courtenay and Campbell River on Vancouver Island. In 1999, Hodgins received the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize for Broken Ground, his novel about the homesteading tribulations of an enclave of returned war veterans and their families. Hodgins first gained broad recognition in the Canadian literary community when he won the Governor General's Award for Fiction for his light-hearted novel, The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne (1979), which celebrates a colourful cast of characters in the fictional coastal town of Port Annie. However, Hodgins is perhaps most celebrated for his first collection of short stories, Spit Delaney's Island, published in 1976. It received the Eaton's Book Award and kick-started his remarkable literary career. "This Lifetime Achievement Award is a wonderful honour - imagined but hardly expected,"; said Hodgins. "Now it becomes a remarkable sort of encouragement - not to step aside as though an end has been reached, but to keep working as though there were a second lifetime." Jack Hodgins and his wife live in Victoria, B.C. Their children and grandchildren reside in Victoria and Vancouver. He has been the subject of a National Film Board film, Jack Hodgins' Island, and several books, including On Coasts of Eternity: Jack Hodgins' Fictional Universe, edited by J.R. (Tim) Struthers. In 1996, Hodgins was one of ten Canadian writers invited by the French Minister of Culture to be honoured at Les Belles Etrangers festival in Paris. In June of 1997 he taught a fiction workshop in Marburg, Germany. In 1999, he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada. This award is adjudicated annually by members of the Pacific BookWorld News Society. Its president, Howard White, says that "[...I]n his stories and novels, Jack Hodgins has sought to capture the flavour of the BC countryside perhaps more singularly than any writer, and has succeeded in giving us a portrait of ourselves that manages to be appalling and endearing at the same time. He was tailor-made for this award."
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In partnership with the Vancouver Public Library and BC BookWorld, Terasen first initiated the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995 at the official opening of the Library Square to celebrate and support outstanding literary careers in British Columbia. In addition to the award presentation, Mr. Hodgins name will be added to "Writer's Walk" near the northeast plaza, close to the Library's Georgia Street entrance. "The Writer's Walk of Fame is a popular destination for visitors to Vancouver and everyday Library Square patrons alike,"; said VPL City Librarian Paul Whitney. "The Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award is a great way to celebrate B.C. writers, and VPL is proud to join Terasen and BC BookWorld in showcasing some of B.C.'s great literary talents."; Jack Hodgins is the 12th recipient of the Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award, B.C.'s most prestigious literary award. Previous winners include Alice Munro, P.K. Page, Jane Rule, and Eric Nicol, to name a few. For more information on this award, 2006 award recipient Jack Hodgins, and a complete list of Terasen Lifetime Achievement Award winners, visit www.bcbookworld.com. Founded in 1887, the Vancouver Public Library is one of Canada's largest library systems, dedicated to meeting the lifelong learning, reading, recreation and information needs of the people of Vancouver. Its 22 branches serve over 370,000 patrons, offer over 2.5 million items and countless online resources to the public, and answer over one million reference questions each year.