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Darrel J. McLeod, John Vaillant and Helen Knott among 2024 BC and Yukon Book Prizes winners

Darrel J. McLeod, John Vaillant and Helen Knott among 2024 BC and Yukon Book Prizes winners

Darrel J. McLeod, John Vaillant and Helen Knott are among the winners for the 2024 BC and Yukon Book Prizes. 

The annual awards recognize the work of British Columbia and Yukon writers and artists across eight different categories, from fiction to children’s literature and poetry. The winner of each prize will receive $3,000.

(Douglas & McIntyre)

McLeod’s novel A Season in Chezgh’un won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.

A Season in Chezgh’un is a fictionalized year in the life of a Nehiyaw man and what he experiences working in a remote B.C. First Nation. James, a man from a small settlement in Northern Alberta has created a comfortable life for himself in a trendy neighbourhood in Vancouver.

He has all the things he once dreamed of — he travels, has great friends, a great career and a caring partner — but part of him is wary of assimilating into mainstream culture.

McLeod was from Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. Before his retirement, he was chief negotiator of land claims for the federal government and executive director of education and international affairs with the Assembly of First Nations. He was also the author of the memoirs Mamaskatch and Peyakow. Mamaskatch won the 2018 Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction and Peyakow was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. McLeod passed away in 2024.

Book cover.
(Knopf Canada)

Vaillant’s Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize.

Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast is an epic nonfiction work that examines the events surrounding the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire. In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada’s oil industry and America’s biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon.

Fire Weather explores the legacy of North American resource extraction, the impact of climate science and the symbiotic relationship between humans and combustion.

John Vaillant is a Vancouver-based freelance writer, novelist and nonfiction author. His first book, The Golden Spruce, won the 2005 Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction. His book The Tiger, was a national bestseller and was a contender on Canada Reads in 2012, defended by Anne-France Goldwater. Vaillant is also the author of the novel The Jaguar’s Children. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic.

A woman is wrapper in a colouful shawl.
(Knopf Canada)

Knott’s novel Becoming a Matriarch: A Memoir won the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes.

Becoming a Matriarch tells the story of Knott’s experience losing both her mother and grandmother in just over six months. The book explores themes of mourning, sobriety through loss and generational dreaming, and redefines what it means to truly be a matriarch.

Knott is a poet, social worker and writer of Dane Zaa, Nehiyaw, Métis and European descent from the Prophet River First Nation. She is also the author of the memoir In My Own Moccasins, which won the 2020 Saskatchewan Book Award for Indigenous Peoples’ Publishing.

The remaining winners are:

In addition to the eight awards for the annual prize categories, two awards are also awarded

to writers for their body of work and contributions to the literary community:

  • Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence: Keith Maillard
  • Borealis Prize: The Commissioner of Yukon Award for Literary Contribution: Lhù’áán Mân Ye Shäw (Kluane First Nation Elders)

Established in 1985, the BC and Yukon Book Prizes honour and promote the achievements of the BC and Yukon book community. The prizes are supported by the West Coast Book Prize Society.

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