British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction Announces 2017 Jury

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwired - Oct. 1, 2016) - The Board of Directors of the British Columbia Achievement Foundation is pleased to announce the jurors for British Columbia's National Award for Canadian Non Fiction: Hal Wake, Jan Walter and John Burns. The 2017 jury members will determine the best works of Canadian non-fiction for the thirteenth awarding of the prestigious prize.

The award longlist will be revealed on November 1, 2016, with the shortlist being announced December 1, 2016. The shortlisted authors will be celebrated and the winner announced at a gala luncheon in Vancouver in early 2017.

Keith Mitchell, Chair of the British Columbia Achievement Foundation noted: "I am inspired by the collective knowledge of this year's jury each of whom is a lifelong supporter of good writing. I look forward with great anticipation to the results of the jury deliberations for the 2017 prize."

About the Jury:

Hal Wake

Returning juror and 2017 Jury Chair, 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 Honorary Member of the Writers Union of Canada and he is currently the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Writers Fest.

Jan Walter

Jan Walter has spent her life around books: selling, acquiring, editing, publishing, promoting. She began as a bookseller at Mel Hurtig's store in Edmonton, eventually running her own store there - Fifth Business Books - for a time. She worked first as an editor and then in executive positions with several Canadian publishing companies, including Macmillan and McClelland & Stewart. In 1988, together with writer/editors Gary Ross and John Macfarlane, she started Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, which became one of Canada's premier publisher of quality nonfiction, publishing over 60 award-winning and bestselling titles. Walter has made her home in Kingston, Ontario since 2004 and is a former Chair of the Kingston WritersFest Board.

John Burns

John Burns is the editorial director of Echo Storytelling Agency, a Vancouver-based custom publishing company that documents the lives and accomplishments of individuals and companies through a range of products, from books and magazines to websites and social media campaigns. Burns worked in journalism for 25 years and his early gigs ranged from community sports editor to managing editor of the Georgia Straight to editor-in-chief of Vancouver Magazine. Along the way, there were side trips into book publishing and book writing, radio broadcasting and university tenure.

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 remaining 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.