BC letters - BC BookWorld
BC letters - BC BookWorld
BC letters - BC BookWorld
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25 <strong>BC</strong> BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2009<br />
bc book prizes<br />
<strong>BC</strong> BOOK PRIZES<br />
1985-2009<br />
Bill Reid accepts Haig-Brown Prize, 1985<br />
2009 BOOK PRIZE WINNERS<br />
Gabor Maté, Stephen R. Bown,<br />
Katarina Jovanovic, Stephen Hume,<br />
Daphne Marlatt, Scott McIntyre.<br />
RITA BUSHWITZ PHOTO<br />
Howard White with NDP Culture Minister<br />
Darlene Marzari at Penticton gala, 1993<br />
Photographer Barry Peterson and Ming Ow mounted<br />
the Lit Happens exhibit featuring B.C. authors.<br />
ALAN TWIGG PHOTO<br />
Egoff Prize presenter Meg Tilly and Haig-Brown Prize<br />
nominee Gillian Jerome<br />
QUARTER<br />
CENTURIONS<br />
RITA BUSHWITZ PHOTO<br />
Pierre Berton emceed events that<br />
honoured George Woodcock in 1994.<br />
Downtown Eastsiders Teresa Chenery and<br />
Clyde Wright were on hand to root for Hope in Shadows:<br />
Stories & Photographs of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside,<br />
nominated for the Haig-Brown Prize.<br />
Book Prize Society’s Sally Harding, Gwen Point,<br />
Lieutentant Governor Steven L. Point, coordinator<br />
Bryan Pike of Rebus Creative.<br />
MONICA MILLER PHOTO<br />
IT WAS TWENTY YEARS AGO TODAY, SGT. PEPPER TAUGHT THE BAND TO<br />
play. And it was twenty-five years ago that a little-known<br />
and much-forgotten umbrella group called <strong>BC</strong> Book Promotional<br />
Council suggested folks should rally ’round to<br />
produce an alternative to the defunct Eaton’s Book Award.<br />
About 300 people subsequently gathered for the first <strong>BC</strong><br />
Book Prizes gala in 1985. Four prizes were handed out, including<br />
one to a coffee table book about preserving Haida<br />
Gwaii. The artist Bill Reid accepted and angrily told his<br />
mostly white-faced audience, “You people are a bunch of murderers.<br />
You are worse than a swarm of locusts.” Everybody<br />
drank too much, danced and had a good time.<br />
Fast forward to 2009. Lieutenant Governor Steven<br />
Point jokes that he is First Nations Catholic who now officially<br />
represents the Queen of England. There are eight prizes.<br />
And nobody drinks too much.<br />
Book Prizes’ co-founder and emcee Alan Twigg asked<br />
how many people had attended the first bun toss back in ’85.<br />
Seven people raised their hands. When he asked if anyone had<br />
attended all 25 successive galas, only Howard White of<br />
Harbour Publishing stood up.<br />
His Honour Steven Point had some competition this year<br />
for Best Speech [see next pages] and half the prizes were won<br />
for books published in B.C., even though B.C.-published titles<br />
only amounted to about one-third of the nominees.<br />
First-time event organizer Fernanda Viveiros is off<br />
to a good start for the next quarter-century.<br />
Susan Musgrave in 1997. She hosted<br />
the gala twice more in Victoria.<br />
Lee Henderson was a surprised winner<br />
of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in 2009.<br />
RITA BUSHWITZ PHOTO