The shortlist of finalists in the third annual Sunshine Coast Book Awards for BC Authors was released this week, with winners in the juried competition set to be announced later this month at a festival that will also unite local artists and writers.
The awards — and the Art & Words Festival — are organized by the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society. Starting in February, the contest solicited submissions from trade publishers and authors who self-publish. In order to be eligible, authors must be residents of British Columbia.
“Despite the looming threat of a postal strike and the trade wars, this year saw a 75 per cent increase in entries over last year’s total books,” said Cathalynn Labonté-Smith, president of the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society.
Forty-three finalists were revealed across four categories: poetry, fiction, nonfiction and literature for children and young adults.
Local writers appear in all four categories. Deanna Bell’s The Quantum Spirit: A Poetic Journey to Source and Sheila Weaver’s The Taste of a Raindrop each earned nods in the poetry division. Marion Crook received recognition in both fiction and nonfiction categories, for her novel Murder In Vancouver 1886 and memoir Always On Call respectively. Robin Lamarche — the longtime editor of the locally published Not an Island literary anthology — earned a fiction distinction for her short story collection Voices in Prose. Another regular Not an Island contributor, Mike Starr, was honoured for Friends in Nicaragua, a first-person account of supporting families and communities in Central America.
Two authors slated to present at this month’s Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts are among the honourees. Charlotte Gill’s family memoir Almost Brown and andrea bennett’s alimentary adventure Hearty: On Cooking, Eating, and Growing Food for Pleasure and Subsistence are both shortlisted for nonfiction awards.
Guests from last year’s writers festival also appear, including Sarah Cox (Signs of Life: Field Notes from the Front Lines of Extinction) and Rockwood Lecture presenter Gregor Craigie (his children’s book Saving Wolfgang navigates grief from a youthful perspective).
The 11 selections in the category for children’s and young adult books encompass several titles that illuminate Indigenous culture and reconciliation. Frances Backhouse’s Bison describes the historic role of North America’s largest land animal; Two Tricksters Find Friendship, by Johnny Aitken and Jess Willows, recounts intercultural companionship between Grade 4 students
Awards will be announced on Aug. 23 during the Art & Words Festival at the Gibsons Public Market. The annual festival pairs local artists and writers, with each responsible for creating a mutually-inspired work. More than 50 authors and artists participated this year, including students from School District 46’s Sunshine Coast Alternative School program. Contributions hewing to the theme Precious Water appear in a published anthology.
“This year’s festival promises a vibrant mix of voices and perspectives from all over the Sunshine Coast,” said Gibsons mayor Silas White in a congratulatory statement to festival participants.
The Art & Words Festival is set to close with a screening of Body of Light, a 2016 allegory produced by the late filmmaker and installation artist Gordon Halloran.
A full list of book awards finalists can be found online at www.scwes.ca. Registration for the Art & Words Festival (Aug. 22 to 24 at the Gibsons Public Market) is available at the same website.
