Western Canada Jewish Book Awards
May 14th, 2025
Five of the six Western Canada Jewish Book Awards were won by British Columbia-based authors. Here are the BC winners.
THE BETTY AVERBACH FOUNDATION PRIZE FOR POETRY
Talking to Strangers (Véhicule Press / Signal Editions, 2024) $19.95
By Rhea Tregebov (pictured at right)
Talking to Strangers is a book of bracing encounters. Throughout her four decades as poet, Rhea Tregebov has displayed an eye for the mysteries of ordinary life―moments where, as she writes, “[t]he simplest things / elude me.” This gift is brought to effect in her eighth book of poetry and most charged to date. In arias of recollection and evocation, of elegy and heartbreak, Tregebov mourns, praises, prays, regrets, summons, celebrates and bears witness with formidable artistry and tenderness (“You wouldn’t think the inanimate would get tired /but it does.”) Direct, never forced, observant and marked by scrupulous craft, these new poems unfold in beguiling, often breathtaking ways.
Rhea Tregebov is the author of eight acclaimed books of poetry and two novels, The Knife Sharpener’s Bell and Rue des Rosiers. Her work has received the J. I. Segal Award, the Nancy Richler Memorial Prize for Fiction, the Malahat Review Long Poem Prize, the Pat Lowther Award, and the Prairie Schooner Readers’ Choice Award. Retired from teaching at UBC, she now holds the position of Associate Professor Emerita and is the former Chair of The Writers Union of Canada. She lives in Vancouver.
9781550656565
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THE PINSKY GIVON FAMILY PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION
In a “Land of Hope”: Documents on the Canadian Jewish Experience, 1627–1923, Volume 1 (Champlain Society, 2023) $99.00 cloth, free digital open access.
Co-authored by Richard Menkis and Pierre Anctil.
In a “Land of Hope” offers a wide-ranging overview of Canadian Jewish history up to 1923, drawn for the first time from its most salient and significant historical sources. This collection provides rich documentation from numerous archives and includes translations from French, Yiddish and Hebrew. It prioritizes the diverse Jewish voices of the poor and wealthy, men and women, farmers and factory workers, and others. Also included are the laws and public statements of the government and its officials that deeply affected the lives of Canadian Jews. Organized chronologically, from the arrival of the first Jewish migrants to New France to Jewish-Canadian experiences during and shortly after the First World War, this first of two volumes includes sources never before published and highlights the activities, concerns and experiences of individuals who have been ignored or minimized. The history of the Jews is a narrative of a non-Christian minority, which has for much of Canadian history been marginalized by the Anglo-Protestant and French-Catholic majorities. Despite its unique character, this history is an integral part of the broader movement of Canadian society and deserves to be considered as one of the many components that have forged the unique identity of Canada.
Richard Menkis (at left)
Richard Menkis is Associate Professor of History at the University of British Columbia. His publications include More than Just Games: Canada and the 1936 Olympics, co-authored with Harold Troper. He is the founding editor of Canadian Jewish Studies/Études juives canadiennes; the co-editor, with Norman Ravvin, of the Canadian Jewish Studies Reader; and served as the Divisional co-editor for entries on Canada in the second edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica. He is also the author of numerous articles focusing on the intersection of memory and Jewish identities. As a public historian, he has co-authored two Holocaust-related museum exhibitions and advised on many others. In 2018, he received the Louis Rosenberg Canadian Jewish Studies Distinguished Service Award, and in 2023 the UBC Dean of Arts Award.
Pierre Anctil is a member of the Royal Society of Canada since 2012 and a professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa since 2022.
9781487554965
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THE CINDY ROADBURG MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR MEMOIR/BIOGRAPHY
Unlikely Insider: A West Coast Advocate in Ottawa (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) $39.95
By Jack Austin (with Edie Austin), Foreword by Paul Martin.
At a time when too many of the world’s political leaders are consolidating power by playing on divisions and stoking fear, Unlikely Insider, a memoir by former federal cabinet minister and senator Jack Austin, comes as a welcome reminder of the value of public service as a force for economic progress, social justice, and nation-building.
With both historical perspective and an eye to the future, Austin reflects on events and people whose impacts are still felt, and on the enduring challenges of Canadian life. Moving away from colonial domination of Indigenous Peoples, navigating our pivotal relationship with the United States and engagement with China, the nature and purpose of the Senate: these remain timely concerns, to which Austin has made significant contributions. Sharing insights into policy as well as into the personalities of colleagues and friends, Unlikely Insider paints vignettes of figures from Premier Zhou Enlai to Queen Elizabeth and recounts the author’s travels with Pierre Trudeau after the prime minister’s retirement.
Jack Austin and his book jacket cover.
Jack Austin worked to ensure that his province’s perspectives and interests mattered in Ottawa; as someone who came from a disadvantaged background, he is sensitive to the need to make the country a place of fairness and opportunity for all. Unlikely Insider reminds Canadians that inclusion – regional, social, and demographic – makes our nation both stronger and more just.
9780228016243
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THE DIAMOND FOUNDATION PRIZE FOR CHILDREN/YOUTH LITERATURE
Friends to the Rescue (Apples & Honey Press, 2024) $23.99
By Ellen Schwartz
Holocaust survivors are depicted as more than just victims in this historical fiction novel for middle grade readers. Inspired by a true story, and told in two different time periods, Friends to the Rescue takes place in Fossa, Italy, a small mountain village that offered refuge to Jews during World War II. When the village suffered a devastating earthquake 65 years later, the Jewish refugees whom the town had helped traveled to Fossa to return the favor.
On April 6, 2009, Luca and his grandfather Roberto were eating lunch together in their quiet home in Fossa, Italy when disaster struck. An earthquake shook the house, forcing them to scramble out and into the streets. As wave after wave trembled the ground, Luca watched as his home and small village fell to rubble.
In the days ahead, with roads impassable, the village was cut off from the rest of the world. Luca and his neighbors needed to work together to survive. Nurses, doctors, and Luca’s grandfather Roberto tended to the wounded, while others scoured the ruins of homes and businesses to look for food and water. It took four days for aid to arrive. When the rescue workers came, they brought welcomed surprise visitors.
Ellen Schwartz
During World War II, Luca’s grandfather Roberto, then just a boy, had helped in another type of rescue. One afternoon, Roberto found his parents clearing out their basement pantry and replacing food with beds. They told him there would be visitors coming to stay with them for a while . . . visitors that must remain hidden. A family of Jews from Rome moved into their pantry, seeking refuge from the German armies that were now in Italy. Their young daughter Sara and Roberto became the closest of friends but lost touch after the war. It would take an emergency to bring them back together.
Ellen Schwartz is the author of 18 award-winning books for children, as well as one non-fiction book for adults, a collection of profiles of women singer-songwriters. Ellen’s children’s books range from picture books through middle-grade novels and young adult fiction and information books. In addition to writing books, Ellen works as a corporate writer and editor and as a freelance magazine writer. She has published hundreds of magazine articles. Ellen has taught creative writing classes for many years at the college and university levels. She lives in Burnaby.
9781681156415
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THE KAHN FAMILY FOUNDATION PRIZE FOR HOLOCAUST LITERATURE
A Childhood Unspoken (Second Story Press, 2023) $14.95
By Marie Doduck
Mariette is only five years old when the Nazis invade her hometown of Brussels, Belgium, in 1940. Soon her family is torn apart, and Mariette and her siblings are scattered across the city and countryside, hiding with non-Jews and in convents and orphanages or working for the resistance. Seeing violence and death all around her, Mariette learns the skills she needs to survive — how to throw a knife, jump from a moving vehicle and, most importantly, stay silent. Mariette emerges from the war quick-thinking, fiercely independent and ready to start a new life in Canada. As she navigates a transition to a new identity as Marie — an industrious and resourceful community member, mother and advocate for children’s rights — Mariette, the silent child, begins to find her voice.
Marie Doduck and book jacket cover.
Marie (Mariette) Rozen Doduck was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1935. She immigrated to Canada in 1947 as a war orphan with three of her siblings and settled in Vancouver. In 1955, she married her husband, Sidney, and raised three children. Marie is actively involved in Holocaust education and is a cofounder of the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. She has received awards for her community leadership work and activism, and in 2024, she was honoured with the Order of Canada.
9781989719978
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