Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

Book Prize Nominees

Mar 7, 2017

The shortlist for the BC Book Prizes is out (see it here) and it highlights some pretty interesting history that was published in the province last year.

The list includes Gently to Nagasaki, Joy Kogawa's meditation on historical atrocity; Mark Leiren-Young's account of Moby Doll, The Killer Whale Who Changed the World; a history of the Gitxsan people, Mapping My Way Home, by longtime tribal leader Neil Sterritt; The Recorded History of the Liard Basin 1790-1910, by Anthony Kenyon, a retired doctor from Fort Nelson; The Last Gang in Town, by Aaron Chapman, about a Vancouver street gang; and A Perfect Eden: Encounters by Early Explorers of Vancouver Island by Michael Layland, which scored nominations in two categories.

There is even an historical novel by Joan Haggerty, The Dancehall Years, set on Bowen Island, where I spent every summer of my lost youth and where, in fact, the author's sister taught me how to swim.

Congratulations to all the nominees, historians or otherwise. Prizes will be awarded April 29.

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