Poet Gary Geddes wins B.C. Lt.-Gov. Award for literature

Gary Geddes, a poet and humanist who also teaches creative writing, has been awarded the B.C. Lieutenant Governor's Award for literature.

Geddes, author and editor of more than 35 books, was presented with the award Saturday evening at a gala for the B.C. Book Prizes.

Geddes's most recent book is Falsework, a poem about lives lost in the catastrophic collapse of the Second Narrows Bridge in Vancouver in 1958.

He also is author of The Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things and Sailing Home: A Journey Through Time, Place and Memory, as well as an editor and reviewer and anthologist of works such as 15 Canadian Poets.

Geddes has explored human-rights issues in Chile during its dictatorship, in Nicaragua during its civil war, and in Israel and the Palestinian territories.He also was honoured asactive promoter of other writers.

Winners of seven other B.C. book awards were also named at the Vancouver gala.

Vancouver writer Mary Novik's debut novel, Conceit, won the prize for fiction.

It recreates the world of 17th century Britain, through the eyes of Pegge Donne, one of five daughters of poet John Donne.

Conceit was chosen as a book of the year by Quill & Quire and long-listed for the Giller Award.

The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, a book by Vancouver authors J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith about their quest to eat food grown and prepared close to home, won the award for best regional book.

The 100-Mile Diet has raised awareness across Canada about where food comes from and why it's so difficult to find foods grown locally.

A book of essays by Quadra Island-based poet Robert Bringhurst, titled Everywhere Being is Dancing, won the prize for non-fiction.

Other winners announced Saturday.:

• Poetry prize: Forage by Rita Wong.
• Children's literature: The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by Polly Horvath.
• Illustrated children's literature: A Sea-Wishing Day, written by Robert Heidbreder and illustrated by Kady MacDonald Denton.
• B.C. Booksellers' Choice: The Last Wild Wolves: Ghosts of the Great Bear Rainforest, by Ian McAllister.

The West Coast Book Prize Society administers the awards, which are judged by a panel of jurists.