George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature is a literary award given to a British Columbian author "who has achieved an outstanding degree of social awareness in a new book published in the preceding calendar year."^[1] The prize was created in 2004 by Allan Twigg of BC Book World along with John Lent of Okanagan College^[2] and Ken Smedley, then working for the George Ryga Centre Society.^[3] In 2014 Alan Twigg took over responsibility for the award after the sale of Ryga House. Originally the prize included a sculpture/plaque by sculptor, Reg Kienast, entitled The Censor's Golden Rope. Now it includes a cash award of $2,500.

Nominees and winners[]

Year	Winner	Finalists
2004 Judge: Craig McLuckie	Maggie De Vries, Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister	Marie Clements, Burning Vision Matt Hern, Field Day: Getting Society Out of School , The Oriental Question: Consolidating a White Man's Province, 1914-41
2005 Judge: Ross Tyner	Robert Hunter, The Greenpeace to Amchitka: An Environmental Odyssey	Stephen Hume and Alexandra Morton, A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming Roy Miki, Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice
2006 Judge: Myrna Kotash	and , In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver	Jean Barman, Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point , Vanishing British Columbia
2007 Judge: Sharon Josephson	, The Wolves at Evelyn: Journeys Through a Dark Century	Daniel Francis, Red Light Neon: A History of Vancouver's Sex Trade , Nobody's Mother: Life Without Kids
2008 Judge: Ivan Townshend	Leilah Nadir, The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family	Gary Geddes, Falsework , Of a Fire Beyond the Hills
2009 Judge: Ivan Townshend	Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo	, A Slice of Voice at the Edge of Hearing , Little Emperors: A Year with the Future of China , Reena: A Father's Story
2010 Judge: Greg Simison	Larry Campbell, Neil Boyd and , A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its Future	Elizabeth Bachinsky, God of Missed Connections Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes
2011 Judge: Andrew Steeves	Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song	, A Room in the City: Photographs of Gabor Gasztonyi , Working with Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater Benjamin Perrin, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking John Vaillant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
2012	No award presented
2013 Judge: Angie Abdou	Joel Bakan, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children	Michael Christie, The Beggar’s Garden Howard White, A Hard Man to Beat: The Story of Bill White, Labour Leader, Historian, Shipyard Worker, Raconteur
2014 Judge: Sean Johnston	Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School	, The Earth Remembers Everything Gillian Wigmore, Dirt of Ages
2015 Jury: George Brandak, Anne Chudyk, Beverly Cramp	, Our Ice is Vanishing / Sikuvat Nunguliqtuq: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change	, Meltdown in Tibet: China’s Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia and , Unmanned: Drone Warfare and Global Security
2016 Jury: Trevor Carolan, Jane Curry, George Johnson	Andrew MacLeod, A Better Place on Earth: The Search for Fairness in Super Unequal British Columbia''	, The Optimistic Environmentalist: Progressing Toward a Greener Future , No Regrets , The Flour Peddlar , The Big Swim: Coming Ashore in a World Adrift David Suzuki, Letters to My Grandchildren
2017 Jury: Trevor Carolan, Jane Curry, Beverley Cramp	Wade Davis, Wade Davis: Photographs	Stephen Collis, Once in Blockadia Ivan Coyote, Tomboy Survival Guide , The News We Deserve: The Transformation of Canada’s Media Landscape James Hoggan with , I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up Eric Jamieson, The Native Voice: The Story of How Maisie Hurley and Canada’s First Aboriginal Newspaper Changed a Nation , Remembered in Bronze and Stone: Canada’s Great War Memorial Statuary and , The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Dam , Dysconnected: Humans Isolated by their Personal Technology Ron Smith, The Defiant Mind: Living Inside a Stroke
2019 Jury: Jane Curry, Trevor Carolan, and Beverly Cramp	Travis Lupick, Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City’s Struggle with Addiction''	Gary Geddes, Medicine Unbundled: A Journey through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care David Suzuki and , Just Cool It! The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do

References[]