Rodney DeCroo takes the Ryga Award
May 11th, 2026
Born and raised in a small coal mining town just outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rodney DeCroo has been a Vancouver-based singer/songwriter, playwright and poet for more than three decades. He has released eight albums that have received critical acclaim in Canada, the US and Europe. In addition to three collections of poetry, DeCroo has written two critically acclaimed plays.
Now DeCroo has won the George Ryga Award for social awareness in literature for his recent book of street photography and poems, Night Moves (Anvil, 2025). DeCroo spent a year taking pictures of East Vancouver almost every day, the best of which he curated this love letter to his community. The judges for the award are retired librarian Jane Curry; author, poet and retired professor, Trevor Carolan; and BC BookWorld publisher, Beverly Cramp.
What the judges said: “Rodney DeCroo uses his lived experience, life trauma and keen inner eye for the underclasses to create songs, poetry and, for the past five years, photography too. The verses and images of East Vancouver in Night Moves are gritty and poignant—rarely-chosen scenes that illuminate the often-desperate lives of people in Vancouver’s Commercial Drive and Downtown Eastside environs.”
The award comes with a purse of $2,500 and will be presented at a public event at the Vancouver Public Library, 350 West Georgia Street on Friday, July 24, 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm.
We gratefully acknowledge the sponsorship of Yosef Wosk, The Writers Trust of Canada, Pacific BookWorld News Society and the Vancouver Public Library.
Rodney DeCroo, photographer-poet at work in East Vancouver.
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