Williams Lake author Neil J. Sterritt has won second place in the British Columbia Historical Federation’s annual historical writing competition.
The awards celebrate books that make significant contributions to the historical literature of British Columbia and were presented during a gala held at the Coast Hotel in Chilliwack Saturday, May 27 as part of the federation’s annual conference.
Earlier this spring Sterritt won the 2017 BC Book Prizes Roderick Haig-Brown Award for Mapping My Way Home: A Gitxsan History.
Sterritt is a prominent Gitxsan leader who chose to make Williams Lake his home three years ago.
In Mapping My Way Home, Sterritt traces the journeys of the European explorers and adventurers who came to take advantage of the opportunities that converged at the junction of the Skeena and Bulkley rivers.
The BC Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing 2016 and $2,500 was awarded to Anthony Kenyon for The Recorded History of the Liard Basin 1790-1910. Fort Nelson News Ltd. (author from Fort Nelson).
Sterritt won the second prize award of $1,500 for his book Mapping My Way Home: A Gitxsan History published by Creekstone Press.
The third prize of $500 went to Victoria author Michael Layland for his book A Perfect Eden published by Touchwood Editions.
Honourable mention was awarded to The Native Voice: The History of Canada’s First Aboriginal Newspaper and Its Founder Maisie Hurley by Eric Jamieson of North Vancouver published by Caitlin Press.
The Community History Award presented was won by North Vancouver author Daniel Francis for his book Where Mountains Meet the Sea: An Illustrated History of the District of North Vancouver published by Harbour Publishing.