I recently told you about how Michael Christie's first book, The Beggar's Garden (a suggested read of the Vancouver Book Club that we run) was NOMINATED for the Giller Prize. Well, Michael's had a bit of a run of nominations lately as he was also SHORTLISTED for the Writers' Trust award and is a FINALIST for this year's Vancouver Book Award. I'll be attending the award ceremony at city hall this coming Tuesday (as Michael's special guest - huzzah!) and while I hope to return to the blog with the news that my personal favourite took the prize I am leaving my bias at the door and will be super happy for any of the 4 authors who have penned these books below. These are the finalists, and they are:
Lynne Bowen - Whoever Gives us Bread
Michael Christie - The Beggar’s Garden
Wayde Compton - After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region
Lesley McKnight - Vancouver Kids
Vancouver Book Award 2011 Finalists! Learn more HERE
This is also a perfect time for me to offer a quick introduction to the new Vancouver Book Club and the team of volunteer editors that we've assembled, but first I have to offer a huge THANK YOU to Lizzy Karp. The club was started by Vancouver Is Awesome in 2010 and Lizzy was it's nucleus. She made it happen, and as well as putting in a ton of hard work to deliver 5 great book club events she started our Read All Over blog feature and essentially initiated book love on V.I.A.. Lizzy has since moved on and we owe her a huge debt of gratitude for the groundwork that she's put down for our new team of book lovers. This group of 8 folks are teaming up to bring a bunch of new literary features to our blog as well as managing the real-life meetings of the Vancouver Book Club and the selections of books that we suggest through it. In alphabetical order, this new team consists of:
Amy Gibson
Erica Mattson
Jennifer Kim
Liam Ford
Liisa Hannus
Lindsay Glauser
Maegan Thomas
Nikki Reimer
You'll be hearing from them all soon. Now go read a book!
