Nanaimo author wins U.S. prize
December 06th, 2021

Craig Taylor has won the 2021 Brooklyn Public Library Literary Prize in the nonfiction category for New Yorkers: A City and its People in Our Time (Doubleday Canada, 2021). Taylor interviewed hundreds of people such as a bodega cashier, hospital nurse, elevator repairman and an emergency dispatcher. He talked to the workers who wire the lights at the top of the Empire State Building, a balloon handler in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, a security guard at the Statue of Liberty and window cleaners at Rockefeller Center. He chose 75 of these profiles for New Yorkers to explore the constant battle between loving the city and wanting to leave it; the nonstop hustle to make it; the pressures on new immigrants, people of color, and the poor; and the question of who gets to be considered a “New Yorker.”
Here is BCBookLook’s Q&A with the author:
BCBookLook: How did you come to write your book, New Yorkers?
BCBL: Do you have a favourite contributing storyteller (i.e. one of the story-tellers) from your New Yorkers book project? Why is that story so special?
BCBL: What did discover about the city interviewing so many of its residents?
CT: I learned New York is a complex, punitive, elevating, inspirational, hope-dashing, gorgeous, still-thrumming world of its own, a great organism that will never stop. It amplifies some and crushes others. I learned it takes a special talent to live in New York and mastering that talent is a life-long process. It’s enjoyable to learn the rules and shortcuts and shorthand of such a city. While researching I learned about both the specific and the universal, and I was drawn ultimately to those who could tell me how to live in New York with compassion. Those were my favourite New York conversations.

Craig Taylor, boating near Nanaimo.
BCBL: Briefly tell me about your background and how you came to be in two of the great cities in the world (London, England and NYC, USA)?
BCBL: Do you have plans for a book about another major world city?
Each year, the Brooklyn Public Library honors outstanding works of nonfiction and fiction/poetry with two prizes given in the fall. Selected by librarians and library staff, who draw on their broad knowledge of literature and the many populations they serve, the BPL Literary Prize recognizes writing that captures the spirit of Brooklyn, one of the most socially and culturally diverse communities in the country. The winners are awarded a $5,000 prize. The award was established in 2015 by a group of fundraisers and volunteers called the Brooklyn Eagles. Past winners include another Canadian author, Winnipeg-based Miriam Toews for Women Talking (Bloomsbury, 2019).
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