Friday, February 13, 2009

Russell Wangersky Wins Canada’s Biggest Non-Fiction Prize

Lots going on last week. Tuesday-Thursday in Toronto with the Association of Canadian Publishers, and then Friday-Sunday on Quadra Island for the BC publishers’ retreat. But before all that, we had the 5th annual BC Award for non-fiction on Monday, and Russell Wangersky won for his book Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself.

There are a few cool things about this: (1) the BC Award is a major national prize (the only one in Canada that doesn’t come from Toronto or Ottawa), (2) Russell is the first Newfoundlander to win the award, and (3) before picking up the BC Award, Burning Down the House also won the Drummer-General’s Award and was named one of the Globe and Mail’s Top 100 Books for 2008.

I always look forward to the award luncheon because each finalist is introduced by someone who can provide some context and insight into the author’s work and/or the story behind each book. All of the introducers were great again this year, but Alexandre Trudeau (who introduced Christopher Shulgan) and Elizabeth Bachinsky (who introduced Russell) are still ringing in my ears a week later. Hit the links for video clips of each.