Arts

Literature: From leaves to pages

By Carlie Thauvette

In a world filled with an ever increasing amount of information and textual material, innovative writers from B.C. were celebrated and awarded for their amazing and thought-provoking literary contributions to this mass of information at the 24th annual B.C. Book Prizes. The winners were announced on April 26, 2008 at a dinner and awards gala held at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel in downtown Vancouver.

Highlights of the night included the announcement of Gary Geddes, a well-known poet, professor, editor, and translator, as the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. Seven books covering the apparent themes of love, ecology, and the environment were also recognized and awarded.

Set in the 17th century, Mary Novik’s novel Conceit pulls at the strings of its readers’ hearts. Written by a former poetry reviewer and buff herself, the author brings to life the fictional story of a poet, John Donne, and his daughter.

This novel, the winner of the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, tells the story of a young woman named Pegge Donne’s never-ending search for love ­but not just any love. Pegge is consumed by the desire for an exceptional love, one that can be seen through the poetry written by her father about his relationship with her deceased mother.

Conceit is Mary Novik’s first novel, short-listed among four other debut novels. It is uplifting to see that in the case of fiction novels, new authors are being recognized and awarded for their work and thereby encouraged to continue writing.

A collection of essays written by Robert Bringhurst, titled Everywhere Being is Dancing: Twenty Pieces of Thinking, was awarded the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. This piece of literature attempts to illustrate the interconnectedness of everything and focuses on the study of poetry as well as translation throughout.

Robert Bringhurst’s volume, a continuation to his first, The Tree of Meaning (2006), demonstrates the inclusion of philosophy within poetry and the connection between poetry and music. Not for the light reader, this piece gives insight into the importance of literature and thought within life.

A thought provoking, socially conscious and environmentally minded collection of poems titled Forage, written by Rita Wong, was honoured with the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. This collection of poems tackles the politically charged topic of ecology, including the current changes occurring in the environment, and relates them to events happening in the international political arena. Despite the sensitive and potentially controversial topics discussed within her essays, the author is commended for her inclusion of humour and beauty throughout her work.

The winner of the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, written by J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith, is another prize-winning piece that delves into a current social issue. Appropriately awarded with the regional prize, this book relates the experience of two Vancouverites’ year long experiment during which they consumed only food that originated within a 100 mile radius of their home.

This book attempts to humanize and put into real-life context the issue of sustainable living for the reader. In their attempt to consume only locally produced products, the authors relate their culinary experiences discovering local delicacies and unknown ingredients with humour and honesty. In honour of The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, locally produced cuisine was served to the guests at the B.C. Book Prize Gala.

The winner of the B.C. Booksellers’ Choice Award in Honour of Bill Duthie, The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest, is also environmentally conscious. Written by Ian McAllister, this book tells the story of a group of wolves located in the north coast of British Columbia, one of the few wolf habitats yet to be disturbed by human influence. How long this untouched existence will remain a reality has yet to be seen. But no matter what the future holds for the wolves of B.C.’s north coast, this book forever documents their behaviour and lifestyle and relates it to readers.

Living in such a beautifully diverse province, in terms of both culture and landscape, the B.C. Book Prizes is a fantastic way to showcase the work of B.C. authors who so eloquently illustrate this diversity.

With their books in tow, shortlisted authors recently traveled to many of the communities in B.C. in which their stories and pieces of writing are set, during a tour around the province to showcase their books.