Yesterday the British Columbia Achievement Foundation announced four finalists for the 2011 B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that all four have pocketed National Magazine Awards as well.
National Magazine Award-winning writer Andrew Westoll — who took the top prize in the Travel category in 2007 for an article in explore — made the B.C. shortlist with his new book, The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary.
Also among the B.C. Award finalists is Montreal writer Joel Yanofsky, who won a 2008 National Magazine Award in the Personal Journalism category for “Bad Day,” published in the Malahat Review. Yanofsky’s new book is Bad Animals: A Father’s Accidental Education in Autism.
Charlotte Gill, whose tree-planting memoir Eating Dirt made the B.C. shortlist, won an Honourable Mention at the 2007 National Magazine Awards for her writing in Vancouver Review. Similarly, B.C. finalist Brian Fawcett (new book Human Happiness) holds a National Magazine Award Honourable Mention from 1978 for his poetry in The Capilano Review.
Congrats to all four who made the shortlist. The coveted B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction includes a cash prize of $40,000. The winner will be announced in February, 2012.
