Cold-cocked Longlisted for the BC Award for Canadian Non-fiction

Wonderful news, folks! Lorna's swell book -- I believe I may have told you that it's a special tome -- Cold-cocked: On Hockey has been shortlisted for the BC Award for Canadian Non-fiction. It's one of the more lucrative prizes in the country, sitting pretty at $40,000.00. Buys a lot of hockey pucks, and could get a family of four swell season's tickets to all Vancouver Canucks games. So vote with your wallets, and pick up a copy: let's let the sales figures do the talking.

The shortlist will be announced in November. As I said, it's a stacked list. But c'mon: do you want to read about Hockey or Lord Beaverbrook? Hockey, or salmon-spawning?

Good luck to all (though, of course, especially to Lorna: cue Hockey Night in Canada theme!)

Announcement below:

BC Celebrates Canada's Best

Longlist Announced

The jury for Canada's largest literary non-fiction prize, the British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, has just released its longlist for 2008. Ten titles are on the longlist for the $40,000 prize, representing a wide range of subject and originating from publishers across the country.


Longlist for the Fourth annual British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction

Title: Some Family: The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself
Author: Donald Harman Akenson
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press

Title: The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory, and the Death of Wild Culture
Author: Tim Bowling
Publisher: Nightwood Editions

Title: At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1914 to 1916
Author: Tim Cook
Publisher: Viking Canada

Title: The Film Club: A True Story of a Father and Son
Author: David Gilmour
Publisher: Thomas Allen Publishers

Title: From Harvey River
Author: Lorna Goodison
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Title: Cold-Cocked: On Hockey
Author: Lorna Jackson
Publisher: Biblioasis

Title: The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
Author: Naomi Klein
Publisher: Knopf Canada

Title: Prisoner of Tehran: A Memoir
Author: Marina Nemat
Publisher: Viking Canada

Title: Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy
Author: Jacques Poitras
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions

Title: Portrait in Light and Shadow: The Life of Yousuf Karsh
Author: Maria Tippett
Publisher: House of Anansi Press


Jury Chair David Mitchell notes: "The quality and diversity of the titles on this longlist are testimony to the enduring strength of Canadian non-fiction. As a result, the work of our jury has been and continues to be extremely challenging."

From the longlist, the jury will select a shortlist, to be announced in November 2007. The award presentation will take place in late-January 2008 in Vancouver.

The jury for the 2008 British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction comprises:
David Mitchell (jury chair), a well-known political commentator and historian whose career has spanned both the public and private sectors. Mr. Mitchell is currently Vice-Principal, Advancement at Queen's University. His published work includes the notable biography, W.A.C. Bennett and the Rise of British Columbia.

Patrick Lane, one of Canada's finest poets. Mr. Lane's award-winning works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction have been published around the world. In 2005, Mr. Lane won the British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for his memoir, There Is a Season.

Sandra Martin, a senior features writer for the Globe and Mail. Ms. Martin is a past winner of the Atkinson and Canadian Journalism Fellowships and gold and silver National Magazine Awards, as well as the author of the just-published book, The First Man: Daughters Write About Their Fathers.


Previous winners for the British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction include:
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)