Lorna Goodison, the writer and poet who moves between Jamaica, Toronto, and the US, wins the British Columbia Book Prize for her memoir From Harvey River. Congratulations. Not so much a history title, but she wins over two rather more historical works, Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy, by Jacques Poitras, and Some Family, Don Akenson's quirky study of genealogy, Some Family.
We read that the prize, funded by the government of B.C. (and for non-fiction published in Canada, not for specifically BC books, obviously) is run by an arm's length foundation. But when the premier shows up to present the award every year, there's a problem of optics, I'd say.
