Longlist announced for Canada's largest award for Non-Fiction

VANCOUVER, Nov. 17 /CNW/ - The jury for Canada's largest literary non-fiction prize, the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, has released its longlist for 2011. One hundred and fifty-one titles were nominated for the $40,000 prize by publishers from across the country. The jury panel has selected the following longlist of ten books:

LONGLIST FOR THE SEVENTH ANNUAL BC NATIONAL AWARD FOR CANADIAN NON-FICTION
Title	Author	Publisher
On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women	Stevie Cameron	Knopf Canada
Extraordinary Canadians: Marshall McLuhan	Douglas Coupland	Penguin Group (Canada)
What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past	James Fitzgerald	Random House Canada
Sunray: The Death and Life of Captain Nichola Goddard	Valerie Fortney	Key Porter Books
Mordecai: The Life & Times	Charles Foran	Knopf Canada
Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich In the Klondike	Charlotte Gray	HarperCollins Canada
Curtains: Adventures of an Undertaker-in-Training	Tom Jokinen	Random House Canada
The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delaney Begins Her Life's Work at 72	Molly Peacock	McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival	John Vaillant	Knopf Canada
The Wave: In the Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean	Susan Casey	Random House Canada

Of their work, the jury notes: "Canadians have a tremendous curiosity about their own stories, and the more than 150 books submitted to the BC Achievement Award for Canadian Non-Fiction attest to the vigour and variety of creative non-fiction in the country, and to the originality and dedication of the authors and publishers who see these titles through. We have been challenged and excited by the privileged task of whittling this number down to a longlist of ten."

The finalists for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction will be announced in early December, 2010. The award presentation will take place January 31, 2011, in Vancouver.

The jury for the 2011 British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction:

Alma Lee is founding executive director of The Writers' Union of Canada as well as of The Writers' Trust; she also founded the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. In 2002 Alma was appointed to the British Columbia Arts Council and in 2005 received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Simon Fraser University. She is a member of the Order of Canada.

Philip Marchand, started his career as a freelance magazine writer, and then became books columnist for the Toronto Star for 19 years. Since 2008 he has written a regular book review column for the National Post. Philip has also written five books including a biography entitled Marshall McLuhan: The Medium and the Messenger, a collection of essays entitled Ripostes: Reflections on Canadian Literature and a combination of memoir, history, and travelogue entitled Ghost Empire: How the French Almost Conquered North America.

Noah Richler is an author and broadcaster. His book This Is My Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada won the 2007 BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and was nominated for the 2006 Nereus Writer's Trust Non-Fiction Prize. He has won National Magazine Awards and is a frequent contributor to the cultural and op-ed pages of the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and Maclean's.

Previous winners for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction include:

• Ian Brown for The Boy in the Moon (2010)
• Russell Wangersky for Burning Down the House (2009)
• Lorna Goodison for From Harvey River (2008)
• Noah Richler for This Is My Country, What's Yours? (2007)
• Rebecca Godfrey for Under the Bridge (2006)
• Patrick Lane for There Is a Season (2005)

The BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction is presented by the British Columbia Achievement Foundation, an independent foundation established and endowed by the Province of British Columbia to celebrate excellence in the arts, humanities, enterprise and community service.

For more information on the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and on submission guidelines, please visit www.bcachievement.com.

For further information:

Nora Newlands
British Columbia Achievement Foundation
604-261-3348
www.bcachievement.com
[email protected]