The Sunshine Coast has several of the best publishers in the province. When the shortlists for the 2016 BC Book Prizes were announced last week, Harbour Publishing, Nightwood Editions and Caitlin Press were chart toppers once again.
Derrick Stacey Denholm is the author of Ground-Truthing, Reimagining the Indigenous Rainforests of BC’s North Coast published by Caitlin. Denholm has been a forestry field worker, tree planter and timber cruiser. In his book, nominated for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, he combines this experience with his perspective as a poet and artist. He asks: how can we work productively and participate ethically in a life that maintains respect for the wild, not only in the rain-soaked forests of B.C.’s north coast, but everywhere?
“The book was a labour of love,” said Caitlin’s Vici Johnstone. She met the author years ago who pitched the idea, and the book went through three rounds of revision before it met Caitlin’s editor. “It’s a subject he’s really passionate about,” she said. Although it’s dense reading, it would be of interest to anyone who has a deep connection with the land.”
The titles in the running for the BC Book Prizes include Orca Chief (Harbour Publishing), a beautifully illustrated children’s book in the Northwest Coast Legend series by Roy Henry Vickers and Robert Budd. Vickers’ reputation as an artist and Budd’s experience as a history writer combine on this colourful book that is a finalist for both the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize and the
Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award.
Also vying for the Booksellers’ Award is Harbour’s B.C. bestseller Light Years: Memoir of a Modern Lighthouse Keeper by Caroline Woodward, who chose adventure over security and became a light keeper living off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
A finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize is Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture by Maria Tippett – a scholarly book by Harbour that celebrates B.C. culture by looking at the careers of eight ground-breaking producers in the fields of painting, aboriginal art, architecture, writing, theatre and music.
Nightwood Editions’ author Raoul Fernandes has been nominated for the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for his debut book, Transmitter and Receiver. His book has been described as a masterful and carefully depicted exploration of one’s relationships with oneself, friends, memories, strangers, and technology.
Although Nightwood Editions is an independent publisher with Silas White at the helm, it is distributed through Harbour. For more information about either one, go to www.harbourpublishing.com.
The winners will be announced at the 32nd Annual Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala on Saturday, April 30 at Government House in Victoria. The Honourable Judith Guichon, OBC, will be in attendance. For more information about the prizes, go to www.bcbookprizes.ca.
