FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 16, 2013 – At the Victoria Book Prize Society awards gala this evening, two Greater Victoria authors were recognized for their literary achievement. Polly Horvath, author of One Year in Coal Harbour (Groundwood Books), won the sixth annual Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize. Colin Holt of Bolen Books presented Horvath with a cheque for $5,000. Stephen Reid, author of A Crowbar in the Buddhist Garden (Thistledown Press), won the tenth annual City of Victoria Butler Book Prize.

In Horvath’s One Year in Coal Harbour, Primrose Squarp is back! The wise and curious heroine of the Newbery Honor Book Everything on a Waffle is facing another adventure-filled year in Coal Harbour. Primrose’s parents are safe at home, having once been lost at sea. But now other people and places that Primrose loves are in precarious circumstances. Through a year of turmoil, Primrose is undaunted as she tries to save what matters to her.

Jurors for the Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize Leslie Hudson, librarian, Freda Nobbs, bookseller and writer Beryl Young had this to say about the winning entry, “Woven throughout are glimpses of just what it means to be alive, of how to discern what you truly value and cherish, how to find beauty, even when it’s wrapped in anger and pain. Brimming with wit, imagination, and insight, One Year in Coal Harbour is at once contemporary and timeless.”

Polly Horvath is one of the most highly acclaimed authors writing today. Her books include The Canning Season (winner of the National Book Award and the CLA Young Adult Book Award), Everything on a Waffle (a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book and winner of the Mr. Christie’s Book Award and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize), The Trolls (a National Book Award finalist), My One Hundred Adventures (a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a Booklist Editors’ Choice, a Kirkus Reviews Best Children’s Book of the Year and winner of a NAPPA Gold Award and the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize), and Northward to the Moon (an Oprah’s Book Club Kids’ Reading List selection and winner of a Parents’ Choice Gold Award). Her next book, Lord and Lady Bunny: Detectives Extraordinaire! will be published in February 2014.

The other finalists were Sarah N. Harvey for Three Little Words and Kit Pearson for And Nothing But the Truth.

The 10-year anniversary gala, held at the Union Club was emceed by Jo-Ann Roberts of CBC’s “All Points West.” Janet Marie Rogers, Poet Laureate for the City of Victoria, opened the evening with a reading from her recent work. Founders of the Victoria Book Prize Society Bess Jillings, Robert Kennedy, Richard Olafson, Dennis Reid, Stephen Scobie, and Jim Munro were on hand to celebrate 10 years of celebrating local writers as were many previous winners.

Founded in 2004, the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize is a partnership between the City of Victoria and Brian Butler of Butler Brothers Supplies. The Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize was founded in 2008 and is funded by Bolen Books. This year’s sponsors include the Union Club, Greater Victoria Public Library, the Magnolia Hotel and Spa, CBC Radio, Island Blue Print, and Thrifty Foods.

The Victoria Book Prize Society establishes the policy and criteria for the prizes, appoints the juries, and administers the competitions.

For more information visit www.victoriabookprizes.ca.