C.P. Boyko Shortlisted for the Victoria Butler Book Prize

Good news for fans of Psychology and Other Stories: today it was announced that C.P. Boyko's fiction collection was shortlisted for the Victoria Butler Book Prize. Congratulations to Craig and all the other nominees. For the official press release, read on.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013
VICTORIA, BC – Celebrating our tenth anniversary, the Victoria Book Prize Society is pleased to announce that eight authors from the Capital Region have been short-listed for the 2013 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for adult literature and the Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize. The winner of each prize will be awarded $5000.

The finalists for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for adult literature are:

C. P. Boyko: Psychology and Other Stories , fiction (Biblioasis)
Lorna Crozier: The Book of Marvels: A Compendium of Everyday Things , non-fiction (Greystone Books)
Bill Gaston: The World , fiction (Hamish Hamilton, an imprint of Penguin Books)
Christina Johnson-Dean: The Life and Art of Ina D. D. Uhthoff , non-fiction (Mother Tongue Publishing)
Stephen Reid: A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden , non-fiction (Thistledown Press)

The finalists for the Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize are:

Sarah N. Harvey: Three Little Words , fiction (Orca Book Publishers)
Polly Horvath: One Year in Coal Harbour , fiction (Groundwood Books)
Kit Pearson: And Nothing but the Truth , fiction (HarperCollins)

Two independent juries comprised of representatives from the literary arts community reviewed the entries for literary merit. This year there were 39 submissions for the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize and 15 for the Bolen prize. The winners will be announced at the ten-year anniversary awards gala to be held at the Union Club of Victoria, 805 Gordon Street, on October 16 at 7:30. Tickets are $15 and are available now from Bolen Books, Munro’s Books, Ivy’s Bookshop and the Victoria Book Prize Society (250-595-8430).
 

Founded in 2004, the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize is a partnership between the City of Victoria and Brian Butler of Butler Brothers Supplies. The Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize was founded in 2008. Additional sponsors include: Union Club of British Columbia, Greater Victoria Public Library, Island Blue Print, Magnolia Hotel and Spa, Thrifty Foods and CBC Radio. The Victoria Book Prize Society establishes policy and criteria for the prizes, administers the competition and appoints the juries. For further information call Michelle Wong, President VBPS at 250-888-9219 or visit www.victoriabookprizes.ca.

More Victoria Butler shortlist coverage...

An article published yesterday in the Victoria Times-Colonist.

Husband and wife vie for city book prize

Katherine Dedyna

Times Colonist

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

An exciting literary evening will climax Oct. 17 at the Union Club when one of five local writers wins the $5,000 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize.

"If people want tickets, they should get them quickly," says Victoria Book Prize Society president Bess Jillings, noting only 200 of the $10 tickets remain available.

The event features readings by the five finalists, refreshments and a chance to mingle with the authors and have books autographed by finalists.

The 2007 finalists include a husband and wife as well as last year's winner. They are:

- Bill Gaston, author of Gargoyles, a book of edgy short stories nominated last year as best English-language fiction for the Governor General's Award. According to publisher House of Anansi, gargoyles are "physical manifestations of the disfigurements and contortions to which we human beings subject ourselves."

- PK Page, one of Canada's most acclaimed poets, for Hand Luggage, her poetic account of her years spent travelling as the wife of a diplomat. It's a book of "penetrating observations and probing questions arising from richly varied cultural experience frankly and lovingly examined," says a review by Stan Dragland on the website of publisher Porcupine Quill.

- Patricia Young, known previously for her poetry, for Airstream, 14 short stories published by Biblioasis that, according to the publisher, "explore the small victories and lurching disappointments" of everyday life in unsentimental style. To wit: "a house fire sets in motion the end of a marriage as a couple re-examine the meaning of truth and commitment."

- Terence Young (Patricia's husband), a St. Michaels University School teacher, for his book of poetry, Moving Day. Publisher Signature Editions notes that "some poems touch on the dreamy qualities of memory, its tendency to slip into the magical, and still others turn a quirky eye onto child-rearing, education, home repair." Young is a previous winner for his novel, After Goodlake's.

- Mark Zuehlke, last year's winner for Holding Juno -- his view of the Normandy invasion -- this year goes back to the War of 1812 with For Honour's Sake, a non-fiction account published by Knopf Canada. "This is a really readable history of that war," says Jillings.

Zuehlke explores who really won through "never-before-seen archival material" and covers not only the horrors of war but the unsatisfactory negotiations in Ghent that ended it but have resonated for nearly two centuries, says the publisher's website.

The five finalists were winnowed from about 50 entries. Local authors, who did not make the cut include Silken Laumann (Child's Play; Random House); Terry Glavin (Waiting for the Macaws; Penguin) and Katy Hutchinson (Walking After Midnight; Raincoast).

The jury will be revealed on the evening of the awards; MC will be John Gould, a past Giller Prize nominee and University of Victoria writing instructor.

The Victoria Butler Book Prize is funded by the city of Victoria, with administrative and some event costs covered by philianthropist Brian Butler of Butler Brothers Supplies. Other contributing sponsors include the Union Club, the Greater Victoria Public Library and the Magnolia Hotel.

Tickets are available at Munro's, Bolen Books, Ivy's or by calling 592-1464.

© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007