Book awards that debuted last year on the Sunshine Coast have announced finalists for 2024 prizes.
Thirty-five titles are shortlisted for top honours in the competition sponsored by the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society, with winners due to be identified in late August. The awards recognize authors from British Columbia.
A quartet of recent publications by Coast writers earned the nod from judges.
Finalists in the category of Sunshine Coast Voices include Caitlin Hicks’s historical novel Kennedy Girl, Charlotte Morganti’s whodunnit Local Heiress Dead, the group anthology Memoir & More, and Mind Cuttings by Taylor James Waters — the pseudonym of Halfmoon Bay author Doris Good.
Good’s book is a collection of stories from the imagined lives of overstressed metropolitan inhabitants.
The Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society launched the annual book awards in 2023 in conjunction with its Art and Words Festival. This year the judging panel reviewed 97 submitted titles.
The competitions’s 25 judges included best-selling memoirist Marion Mackinnon Crook and former Coast Reporter arts columnist Jan DeGrass. One of the judges — CBC science broadcaster Bob McDonald — was also shortlisted in the non-fiction category for his work The Future is Now: Solving the Climate Crisis with Today’s Technologies. (Like other judges with nominated books, McDonald did not review his own publication).
Vince Ditrich, the drummer for the erstwhile rock group Spirit of the West, was among seven fiction authors shortlisted. Ditrich officiated at the 2023 book awards ceremonies, and published the latest instalment in his light-hearted Vicar series (The Vicar Vortex) in February.
A history of the Squamish Nation is among the titles honoured in the category of Indigenous Voices. Tiná7 Cht Ti Temíxw: We Come From This Land was published in January to mark the centennial of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh leadership signing an amalgamation agreement that declared several communities in Squamish territory as one nation.
“We had more entries last year, at 117, but I think that showed how there was a pent-up demand for this type of contest,” said Cathalynn Labonté-Smith, president of the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society. “Our contest is unique in that authors have autonomy to enter our contest directly. In many contests only their publishers can enter their books on their behalf, although we do have major publishers do that. “
The event is also the only book competition in the province where self-published and traditionally published books compete together. Twenty per cent of contest finalists self-published their volumes.
“We’ve been tailoring our awards to the entries we receive,” added Labonté-Smith. “We have unique forward-thinking categories like Diverse Voices. As the coordinator, I want to give each book its best opportunity to win. Also, we have the Indigenous Voices category and added the About BC Award this year. Next year, I hope to add Debut Book award.”
Daniel Marshall’s Untold Tales of Old British Columbia earned the contest’s inaugural About BC prize. The 2024 prize is dedicated to the memory of UBC professor Ronald B. Hatch. Hatch, who died in 2021, was also the co-owner of Ronsdale Press.
“Ron was an amazing human being, educator, and tireless publisher and supporter of BC authors,” observed Labonté-Smith, who studied under Hatch. “Mentors rarely know the positive influence they have on others and what lessons they perpetuate. He’s left an enormous crater behind, but Ron’s legacy lives on in so many visible and invisible ways. He was larger-than-life and cared about all living things.”
The contest also recognizes books for younger readers. Among titles shortlisted for the Children’s and Young Adult prize is an account of groundbreaking BC hockey player Larry Kwong, the first person of Asian heritage to play in the NHL. Chad Soon and George Chiang published The Longest Shot: How Harry Kwong Changed the Face of Hockey in January.
Winners in each category will be revealed during the Art and Words Festival at the Gibsons Public Market on Aug. 24.
A full list of finalists is available online at scwes.ca.
