Victorians make short lists for B.C. Book Prizes

Nine Victoria authors are shortlisted for B.C. Book Prizes, it was announced Tuesday.

City writers dominated in children’s literature categories. Monique Gray Smith (My Heart Fills with Happiness) and Nikki Tate (Deep Roots: How Trees Sustain Our Planet) are in the running for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize. Also up for the prize is Victoria author Robert Budd, who co-created Peace Dancer with Roy Henry Vickers. Peace Dancer is also a contender for the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award, as is A Perfect Eden: Encounters by Early Explorers of Vancouver Island by Victoria’s Michael Layland.

Victorians R.K. McLay (The Rahtrum Chronicles: The Dream), Robin Stevenson (Pride: Celebrating Diversity & Community) and Kit Pearson (A Day of Signs and Wonders) are shortlisted for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize.

Victoria writer Mark Leiren Young (The Killer Whale Who Changed the World) is a finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.

Michael Layland (A Perfect Eden: Encounters by Early Explorers of Vancouver Island) is nominated for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize.

Also shortlisted are Duncan’s Jennifer Manuel (The Heaviness of Things that Float) for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, Salt Spring Island’s Margriet Ruurs (Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey) for the Christie Harris Illustrated Children’s Literature Prize and Gabriola Island’s Iain Lawrence (The Skeleton Tree) for the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize.

The winners will be announced at the Lieutenant Governor’s B.C. Book Prizes Gala in Vancouver on April 29.