BC Celebrates Canada's Best
Announcing the 2006 Jury
Denise Chong, Ottawa
Denise Chong is best known for The Concubine's Children, one of the first non-fiction narratives of a Chinese family in Canada, which tells of her grandmother's life in the old Chinatowns of B.C. Chong's stage adaptation premiered at Nanaimo's Port Theatre in 2004. Her second book, The Girl in the Picture, was also ground-breaking, in its portrayal of life in war-torn Vietnam. Both books were finalists for the Governor General's literary award.
May Wyman, OC, Lions Bay
Max Wyman is one of Canada's leading cultural commentators. His most recent book, The Defiant Imagination: Why Culture Matters, is a passionate manifesto asserting the central importance of the arts and culture to modern Canada. A former member of the board of the Canada Council for the Arts and the successful Vancouver 2010 Olympic Bid committee, he was from 2002-2006 President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and holds an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Simon Fraser University. He was recently elected Mayor of Lions Bay, British Columbia.
Hal Wake, Vancouver
Hal Wake has been engaged with the literary community in Canada for more than 30 years. In the mid '80s he was the book producer for CBC Radio's Morningside with Peter Gzowski. He has hosted or moderated more than a hundred literary events at Festivals in Vancouver, Victoria and Sydney Australia. His reviews have appeared in the Georgia Straight and the Vancouver Sun. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Writers Festival.
December 1, 2006
Photos from the 2006 presentation ceremony
BC Award for Non Fiction main page
2006 presentation ceremony introductionsDOWNLOAD