British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction Prize Announces 2016 Jurors

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Oct. 7, 2015) - The Board of Directors of the British Columbia Achievement Foundation is pleased to announce that the jurors for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non Fiction are Anne Giardini, Richard Gwyn and Hal Wake. The distinguished jury will choose the best works of Canadian non-fiction for the twelfth annual presentation of the award.

The award longlist will be revealed in late November 2015, with the shortlisted finalists announced in December. The winner of the BC National Award for Canadian Non Fiction will be announced and celebrated at a gala luncheon in Vancouver in early 2016.

Keith Mitchell, Chair of the British Columbia Achievement Foundation noted: "I am inspired and delighted with the make-up of this year's jury. The jurors will draw on their varied viewpoints and frames of reference to put forth their decisions. I look forward with great anticipation to the results of the jury deliberations for the 2016 prize."

About The Jury:

Anne Giardini, QC

Returning juror and 2016 Jury Chair, Giardini is the 11th Chancellor of Simon Fraser University, a former forestry executive, and a lawyer and writer. She is the author of two novels, The Sad Truth about Happiness (2005) and Advice for Italian Boys (2009). Giardini has been Chair of the Vancouver International Writers Festival and a board member of the Writers Trust of Canada and continues to serve on a number of boards across Canada.

Richard Gwyn

Gwyn is widely-known as a political columnist for the Toronto Star and a frequent commentator on television and radio. He is also the author of several award-winning books including highly-praised biographies of Pierre Trudeau, and of Newfoundland Premier Joey Smallwood. His best-known work is the award-winning, two-volume biography of John A. Macdonald, The Man Who Made Us. His study of Canada as a post-modern, multi-cultural society, Nationalism Without Walls: The Unbearable Lightness of Being Canadian, was cited by the Literary Review of Canada as one of the country's 100 most-important books.

Hal Wake

Returning juror Hal Wake has been engaged with the literary community in Canada for more than 30 years. He has conducted on-stage interviews with Alice Munro, Jonathan Safran Foer, Richard Ford, Sharon Olds, Rohinton Mistry, Michael Chabon, Joseph Boyden and Anne Michaels, amongst many others. He has served on granting juries for the Canada Council for the Arts, the BC Arts Council and the City of Vancouver. Wake is an Honourary Member of the Writers' Union of Canada and he is currently the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Writers Fest.

The BC National Award for Canadian Non-fiction is awarded annually to the author whose book celebrates a genre that stimulates our national conversation and shares knowledge about the complex world in which we live. The Award is presented by the British Columbia Achievement Foundation, an independent foundation established and endowed by the Province of BC in 2003 to celebrate excellence and achievement in the arts, humanities, enterprise and community service.

The Award consists of $40,000 for the winning author and $5,000 for each of the finalists. All of the shortlisted titles receive extensive national publicity and marketing support.

Background information about British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction is available at http://www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction.

Detailed information about the awards and a list of past winners is posted on the foundation's website at www.bcachievement.com.