CBC Radio host and author Grant Lawrence won the Bill Duthie Booksellers’ Choice Award for his debut book Adventures In Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound at the 27th Annual Lieutenant Governor’s Gala in West Vancouver on April 21.

The award, which comes with a $2,000 cash prize for its recipients, is awarded to the best book published in B.C. in the previous calendar year and is voted on by members of the BC Booksellers’ Association.

Coincidentally enough, the gala, which took place at the Kay Meek Centre, is attached to Lawrence’s alma mater, West Vancouver Secondary School. During his acceptance speech, he reminisced that while the theatre didn’t exist when he was attending the school, he thought it was located at the site of the school’s old “smoke hole.” Lawrence also thanked his publisher, Harbour Publishing -a co-recipient of the Bookseller’s Choice Award -his parents, who provided him with the beginning of his memoir, and his wife, singer-songwriter Jill Barber, who happily supplied the ending.

In his book Adventures in Solitude, we meet Grant as a young boy, a self-proclaimed nerd donning knee braces and coke-bottle glasses who was reluctantly dragged each summer to a piece of land his father bought next to BC’s Desolation Sound marine park in the 1970s- just in time to encounter the gun-toting cougar lady, left-over hippies, outlaw bikers and an assortment of other characters. It was these early experiences, many alongside an influential hermit named Russell, which led Grant to a life of music and journalism far away from Desolation Sound, only to return as an adult and discover the magic and beauty the place has to offer.

Grant Lawrence is a popular voice across Canada as host of the CBC Radio 3 Podcast and Grant Lawrence Live, and through his appearances on various CBC Radio One programs such as DNTO, Spark, All Points West and On the Coast. Fans of independent music tune in to his podcast or turn up an old song from a record by The Smugglers, Grant’s defunct rock band.

The BC Book Prizes, established in 1985, celebrate the achievements of British Columbia writers and publishers, awarding $19,000 in prizes each year. They are administered by members of a non-profit society who represent all facets of the publishing and writing community.

Adventures in Solitude was also shortlisted for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize, making it the only title to be nominated for two BC Book Prizes this year.

BC Book Prizes 2011 Winners List

Vancouver, BC The West Coast Book Prize Society is pleased to announce

the names of the winners of the 27th annual BC Book Prizes:

ETHEL WILSON FICTION PRIZE Supported by Friesens and Webcom

Gurjinder Basran, Everything Was Good-Bye (Mother Tongue Publishing)

DOROTHY LIVESAY POETRY PRIZE Supported by the BC Teachers¹ Federation

Stephen Collis, On the Material (Talonbooks)

HUBERT EVANS NON-FICTION PRIZE Supported by AbeBooks

John Vaillant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Knopf

Canada)

RODERICK HAIG-BROWN REGIONAL PRIZE Supported by Transcontinental Printing

Dan Savard, Images from the Likeness House (Royal BC Museum)

SHEILA A. EGOFF CHILDREN¹S LITERATURE PRIZE Supported by the BC Library

Association

Maggie de Vries, Hunger Journeys (HarperCollins Canada)

CHRISTIE HARRIS ILLUSTRATED CHILDREN¹S LITERATURE PRIZE

Supported by Kate Walker and Company

Julie Flett, Owls See Clearly at Night: A Michif Alphabet (Lii Yiiboo

Nayaapiwak lii Swer: L’alfabet di Michif) (Simply Read Books)

BILL DUTHIE BOOKSELLERS¹ CHOICE AWARD Supported by the BC Booksellers

Association

Grant Lawrence and Harbour Publishing, Adventures in Solitude: What Not

to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR¹S AWARD FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE

George Bowering is the recipient of this award, established in 2003 by

the Honourable Iona Campagnolo, which recognizes British Columbia

writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence

in the province.

A total of $19,000 is awarded to winners with each prize providing

$2,000 with the exception of the Lieutenant Governor¹s prize which

awards $5,000.

This year¹s gala, hosted by Bob Robertson and attended by the Honourable

Lieutenant Governor Steven L. Point, OBC, took place at the Kay Meek

Centre in West Vancouver April 21, 2011. The BC Book Prizes were

established in 1985 to celebrate the achievements of British Columbia

writers and publishers. The prizes are administered and awarded by a

non-profit society that represents all facets of the publishing and

writing community. The West Coast Book Prize Society congratulates all

of the winners!

For further details, visit www.bcbookprizes.ca.