City of Vancouver Book Award

The City of Vancouver Book Award is a Canadian literary award, that has been presented annually by the city of Vancouver, British Columbia to one or more works of literature judged as the year's best fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama work about the city.

As with the City of Toronto Book Award, the award may go to one or more books.

The award has a monetary value of $3,000. The prize is funded by interest earned from the city's publishing reserve, which was established in 1977 as a permanent legacy for writers and publishers. The fund received royalties generated from Vancouver's First Century: A Photo History of Vancouver, edited by city staff. The third edition of the book, renamed Vancouver: A City Album, for many years generated royalty payments for the fund.

Winners and finalists[]

Year	Winner	Finalists
1989 Jury: Jean Barman, Russell Kelly, Doreen Westgarth	Paul Yee, Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver
1990	Sky Lee, Disappearing Moon Cafe	Rosemary Brown, Being Brown: A Very Public Life Stan Persky, Buddy's: Meditations on Desire , The Refiners: A Century of BC Sugar
1991 Jury: Sue Baptie, Sean Rossiter, Don Stewart	, Vanishing Vancouver	Cyril Leonoff, Leonard Frank: An Enterprising Life Robin Ward, Robin Ward's Vancouver
1992 Jury: Jean Barman, Janice Douglas, Margaret Gabriel	, Trees of Vancouver: A Guide to the Common and Unusual Trees of the City	Elizabeth Bower, No Forwarding Address Gregory Edwards, Hidden Cities , Flesh Wound and Graeme Wynn, Vancouver and Its Regions
1993 Jury: Gordon Elliott, John Oliphant, Lucy Stewart	, Vancouver: A Visual History	Irene Howard, The Struggle for Social Justice in British Columbia and John Atkin, Heritage Walks Around Vancouver
1994 Jury: Andrea Davies, Chuck Davis, Bruce Macdonald	Denise Chong, The Concubine's Children	and , Vancouver: Visions of a City Robin Ward, Robin Ward's Heritage West Coast , Line Screw
1995 Jury: Irene Howard, Nancy Stubbs, Greg Willett	Elspeth Cameron, Earle Birney: A Life	and , Mister Got to Go and Robert Davidson, Eagle Transforming: The Art of Robert Davidson
1996 Jury: Mary Ann Cantillon, Irene Howard, Brahm Kornbluth	Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony	, Monday Night Man , Making Vancouver: Class, Status & Social Boundaries 1863-1913
1997 Jury: Laura Hackett, Judy Taylor, Anne Yandle	, The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938-1963	, Vancouver at the Dawn: A Turn-of-the-Century Portrait and , Postcards from the Past: Edwardian Images of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
1998 Jury: Donna Brendon, Ian Chunn,	, The Greater Vancouver Book: An Urban Encyclopaedia	and , The Mulligan Affair: Top Cop on the Take Carmen Rodríguez, And a Body to Remember With
1999 Jury: Mark Leier, Bob Sarti, Joseph Stewart	Bud Osborn, Keys to Kingdoms	Shawn Blore and the editors of "Vancouver Magazine", Vancouver: Secrets of the City , White Lung
2000 Jury: Shamina Senaratne, Nina Smart, Joseph Stewart	and , Lions Gate	Christine Allen and , Gardens of Vancouver Wayson Choy, Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood , The Chinese in Vancouver: The Pursuit of Identity and Power, 1945-80
2001 Jury: Brenda Peterson, Shamina Senaratne, Don Stewart	Madeleine Thien, Simple Recipes	Douglas Coupland, City of Glass: Douglas Coupland's Vancouver Timothy Taylor, Stanley Park , ed., Susan Point: Coast Salish Artist
2002 Jury: Brenda Peterson, Denise Ryan, Michael Varty	, A Sto:lo-Coast Salish Historical Atlas	, Burrard Inlet: A History , The Door is Open: Memoir of a Soup Kitchen Volunteer Cynthia Flood, Making a Stone of the Heart
2003 Jury: George Fetherling, Michael Varty, Anne Yandle	Lincoln Clarkes, , Patricia Canning and , Heroines , ed., Stan Douglas: Every Building on 100 Block West Hastings	John Clague and , Vancouver, City on the Edge: Living with a Dynamic Geological Landscape , Intimate Distances
2004 Jury: Crystal Allen, Keith Bunnell, George Fetherling	Daniel Francis, L.D.: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver	Annabel Lyon, The Best Thing for You Paul Yee, The Bone Collector's Son Honourable Mentions: Caroline Adderson, Sitting Practice; Maggie de Vries, Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister; John Punter, The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design
2005 Jury: Keith Bunnell, Laurie Roggeman, Max Wyman	, Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination	Wayson Choy, All That Matters Leslie Robertson and , eds., In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver Various authors, The Vancouver Stories: West Coast Fiction from Canada's Best Writers
2006 Jury: Rod Clarke, Glenn Deer, Laurie Roggeman	Jean Barman, Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point James P. Delgado, Waterfront: The Illustrated Maritime History of Greater Vancouver	Derek Hayes, Historical Atlas of Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley , Ian M. Thom, and , B.C. Binning
2007 Jury: Glenn Deer, Marc Fournier, Karen X. Tulchinsky	, Vancouver Remembered	and Michael Turner, Fred Herzog: Vancouver Photographs Anita Rau Badami, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? Brett Josef Grubisic, The Age of Cities
2008 Jury: Michelle Benjamin, Marc Fournier, Fernanda Viveiros	and Gillian Jerome, Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside	Gary Geddes, Falsework , At Home With History: The Untold Secrets of Greater Vancouver's Heritage Homes , The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of Peter Bingham
2009 Jury: Janice Douglas, Fred Wah, Fernanda Viveiros	Lee Henderson, The Man Game	, In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts Meredith Quartermain, Nightmarker
2010 Jury: Janice Douglas, Fred Wah, Jean Wilson	Bruce Grenville and , Visions of British Columbia	George Bowering, The Box Matt Hern, Common Ground in a Liquid City , A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Vancouver
2011 Jury: Emilie Dierking, Lee Henderson, Jim Wong-Chu	Michael Christie, The Beggar's Garden: Stories	Lynne Bowen, Whoever Gives Us Bread: The Story of Italians in British Columbia Wayde Compton, After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region , Vancouver Kids
2012 Jury: Jane Bouey, David Chariandy, Rebecca Wigod	W. H. New, YVR	and , eds., V6A: Writing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Claudia Cornwall, At the World's Edge: Curt Lang's Vancouver Ali Kazimi, Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru Jen Sookfong Lee, The Better Mother
2013 Jury: Andrea Davies, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Paul Whitney	Amber Dawn, How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler's Memoir	, The Ballad of Mrs. Smith , Ink on Paper and Robin Ward, Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide , Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History
2014 Jury: Jordan Abel, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Anna Ling Kaye	David Stouck, Arthur Erickson: An Architect's Life	, What Makes Olga Run? , How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? Ashley Little, Anatomy of a Girl Gang: A Novel Billeh Nickerson, Artificial Cherry
2015 Jury: Anna Ling Kaye, Zoey Leigh Peterson, Sirish Rao	Wayde Compton, The Outer Harbour: Stories	, Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver's Historic Commodore Ballroom Bren Simmers, Hastings-Sunrise: Poems and , Mister Got To Go, Where Are You?
2016 Jury: Shirley Lew, Zoey Leigh Peterson, Mary Schendlinger	Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, , and Tania Willard, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories	Wayde Compton and Renée Sarojini Saklikar, eds., The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them Lorimer Shenher, That Lonely Section of Hell: The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away
2017	Carleigh Baker, Bad Endings^[1]	Grant Arnold, Ian M. Thom, Susan Point, Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Thomas Cannell, Myrtle McKay and , Susan Point: Spindle Whorl Gabrielle Prendergast, Pandas on the Eastside Sam Wiebe, Invisible Dead
2018	Chelene Knight, Dear Current Occupant	Travis Lupick, Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City's Struggle with Addiction Erín Moure, Sitting Shiva on Minto Avenue, by Toots Rachel Rose, Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food
2019	Robert Watt and Susan Point, People among the People: The public art of Susan Point	Eve Lazarus, Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer Phillip Huynh, The Forbidden Purple City Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Port of Being Susin Nielsen, No Fixed Address

References[]

^ "Carleigh Baker wins 2017 Vancouver Book Award". Quill & Quire. 2017-10-12. Retrieved 2019-06-12.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links[]