Forsythe & Dickson win LG medal
May 26th, 2015
The venerable The Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing has been awarded since 1983.
This year it was presented at the British Columbia Historical Federation Conference Awards banquet at the Billy Barker Casino Hotel in Quesnel, on May 23rd.
Greg Dickson, BCHF presenter Jacqueline Gresko, Mark Forsythe
Lily Siewsan Chow, 3rd prize winner, with Jacqueline Gresko.
Greg Dickson and his co-writer Mark Forsythe (top right), a long-time B.C. BookWorld columnist, took home the $2,500 top prize for their collaboration From the West Coast to the Western Front: British Columbians and the Great War (Harbour Publishing), published to mark the 100th anniversary of World War I.
It has often been observed that the First World War jolted Canada into nationhood. Their book reveals that no province participated more eagerly in that transformation or felt the aftershock more harshly than British Columbia.
Dickson and Forsythe’s sweeping portrayal of a crucial chapter of BC history was partially compiled with the assistance of the audience of BC Alamnac, now hosted by Gloria Makarenko after Forstyhe’s retirement.
Second prize worth $1500 went to Echoes of British Columbia: Voices from the Frontier by Robert Budd (Harbour Publishing).
Third prize worth $500 went to Blood and Sweat Over the Railway Tracks: Chinese Labourers Constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway (1880-1885), by Lily Siewsan Chow (UBC & Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC).
Honourable mention winner Elsie Paul with Gresko
Honourable mentions—in alphabetical order—went to:
Written as I Remember It: Teachings (??ms ta?aw) from the Life of a Sliammon Elder by Elsie Paul (UBC Press)
Surveying Southern British Columbia: A Photojournal of Frank Swannell, 1901-07 by Jay Sherwood (Caitlin Press)
The History of Leechtown, Part I: The VIEE and the Discovery of Gold on the Sook and Leech Rivers, editor Bart van den Berk (VandeBerk-Books)
A New Community History Award
Local and community history often provides the most sought-after information by historians researching a particular area. Consequently The British Columbia Historical Federation introduced a new award this year, the Community History Award, won by Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commodore Ballroom by Aaron Chapman (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Aaron Chapman won for Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver’s Historic Commodore Ballroom
For more information, visit the British Columbia Historical Federation website: http://www.bchistory.ca/.
CONTACT: Maurice Guibord
British Columbia Historical Federation
2nd Vice-President
writing@bchistory.ca
[Event photos by Darren Durupt]
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