Ryga Award 2020 shortlist

February 06th, 2020

Initiated by The George Ryga Society, B.C. BookWorld, CBC Radio (Kelowna) and Okanagan College in 2004, and with the sponsorship of Dr. Yosef Wosk, the annual Ryga Award is given to a B.C. writer who has achieved an outstanding degree of social awareness in a new book published in the preceding calendar year.

This year’s shortlist for the Ryga Award includes the little-known story of an early B.C. Aboriginal rights activist who was a settler; a graphic novel about one of Canada’s biggest labour strikes; the 50^th anniversary of a venerable B.C. environmental activist organization; a respected First Nation elder and orator who played a lead role in the Delgamuukw case; and a collection of fictional short stories about the immigrant experiences of modern Vietnamese Canadians.

The five shortlisted titles, in alphabetical order, are:

1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg Strike (Between the Lines, 2019) by The Graphic History Collective & David Lester
At the Bridge: James Teit and an Anthropology of Belonging (UBC Press 2019) by Wendy Wickwire
Passion & Persistence: Fifty Years of the Sierra Club in British Columbia (Harbour 2019) by Diane Pinch
Song of the Earth: The Life of Alfred Joseph (Creekstone Press 2019) by Ross Hoffman with Alfred Joseph
The Forbidden Purple City (Goose Lane, 2019) by Philip Huynh

The winner will receive $2500 on Thursday, June 25^th at the Vancouver Public Library on 350 West Georgia Street. The public event will be held in Rooms 919 and 920.

Judges for the George Ryga Award are: author & poet Trevor Carolan, VPL librarian Jane Curry, and BCBookWorld publisher Beverly Cramp.