11 books vie for $40K B.C. book prize
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 10, 2009 | 12:39 PM ET
CBC News
An account of two near-death experiences, a tale of raising a son with a rare genetic condition and a biography of media baron William Randolph Hearst's early years will compete for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.
The three books — by novelist Wayson Choy, journalist Ian Brown and Maclean's editor Kenneth Whyte, respectively — have made the 11-title list of semi-finalists for the 2010 edition of the annual literary prize. Now in its sixth year, the winner's pot has been increased to $40,000.
There is stiff competition for the lucrative honour: other contenders include playwright and CBC broadcaster Erika Ritter, Orange Prize for new writers laureate Karen Connelly and poet Lorna Crozier, a Governor General's Literary Award-winner.
The semi-finalists are:
- Burmese Lessons: A Love Story, Karen Connelly.
- Coal Black Heart: The Story of Coal and the Lives it Ruled, John DeMont.
- Egg On Mao: The Story of an Ordinary Man who Defaced an Icon and Unmasked a Dictatorship, Denise Chong.
- Not Yet: A Memoir of Living and Almost Dying, Wayson Choy.
- Small Beneath the Sky: A Prairie Memoir, Lorna Crozier.
- The Boy in the Moon: A Father’s Search for His Disabled Son, Ian Brown.
- The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece, Eric Siblin.
- The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath: Some Paradoxes of Human — Animal Relationships, Erika Ritter.
- The Ice Passage: A True Story of Ambition, Disaster, and Endurance in the Arctic Wilderness, Brian Payton.
- The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst, Kenneth Whyte.
- Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life, Brian Brett.
"Canada's non-fiction writers have always been among the most compelling participants in our national conversation, and the outstanding titles on this year's long list for B.C.'s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction provide proof positive that this conversation continues to be vital, fascinating, and irrepressible," Andreas Schroeder, chair of the award's three-member jury, said in a statement.
Broadcaster Vicki Gabereau and literary journalist Philip Marchand are also jurors for the 2010 edition.
Organizers will announce a short list of finalists in December, with the winner to be announced at a gala in Vancouver in January. The other finalists will also receive $2,500 each.
Past recipients of the prize have included poets Patrick Lane and Lorna Goodison, and writers Noah Richler, Russell Wangersky and Rebecca Godfrey. The award celebrates the non-fiction genre, which "stimulates our national discourse and illuminates our shared experiences and the complex world in which we live."
