City of Vancouver Book Award

The City of Vancouver Book Award is a Canadian literary award, that has been presented annually by the city of Vancouver, British Columbia to one or more works of literature judged as the year's best fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama work about the city.

As with the City of Toronto Book Award, the award may go to one or more books.

The award has a monetary value of $3,000. The prize is funded by interest earned from the city's publishing reserve, which was established in 1977 as a permanent legacy for writers and publishers. The fund received royalties generated from Vancouver's First Century: A Photo History of Vancouver, edited by city staff. The third edition of the book, renamed Vancouver: A City Album, for many years generated royalty payments for the fund.

Winners and finalists

Year	Winner	Finalists
1989 Jury: Jean Barman, Russell Kelly, Doreen Westgarth	Paul Yee, Saltwater City: An Illustrated History of the Chinese in Vancouver
1990	Sky Lee, Disappearing Moon Cafe	Rosemary Brown, Being Brown: A Very Public Life Stan Persky, Buddy's: Meditations on Desire John Schreiner, The Refiners: A Century of BC Sugar
1991 Jury: Sue Baptie, Sean Rossiter, Don Stewart	Michael Kluckner, Vanishing Vancouver	Cyril Leonoff, Leonard Frank: An Enterprising Life Robin Ward, Robin Ward's Vancouver
1992 Jury: Jean Barman, Janice Douglas, Margaret Gabriel	Gerald Straley, Trees of Vancouver: A Guide to the Common and Unusual Trees of the City	Elizabeth Bower, No Forwarding Address Gregory Edwards, Hidden Cities Paul Grescoe, Flesh Wound Timothy Oke and Graeme Wynn, Vancouver and Its Regions
1993 Jury: Gordon Elliott, John Oliphant, Lucy Stewart	Bruce Macdonald, Vancouver: A Visual History	Irene Howard, The Struggle for Social Justice in British Columbia Michael Kluckner and John Atkin, Heritage Walks Around Vancouver
1994 Jury: Andrea Davies, Chuck Davis, Bruce Macdonald	Denise Chong, The Concubine's Children	Paul Grescoe and Karl Spreitz, Vancouver: Visions of a City Robin Ward, Robin Ward's Heritage West Coast Michael J. Yates, Line Screw
1995 Jury: Irene Howard, Nancy Stubbs, Greg Willett	Elspeth Cameron, Earle Birney: A Life	Lois Simmie and Cynthia Nugent, Mister Got to Go Ulli Stelzer and Robert Davidson, Eagle Transforming: The Art of Robert Davidson
1996 Jury: Mary Ann Cantillon, Irene Howard, Brahm Kornbluth	Wayson Choy, The Jade Peony	Grant Buday, Monday Night Man Robert A. J. McDonald, Making Vancouver: Class, Status & Social Boundaries 1863-1913
1997 Jury: Laura Hackett, Judy Taylor, Anne Yandle	Rhodri Windsor Liscombe, The New Spirit: Modern Architecture in Vancouver, 1938-1963	John A. Cherrington, Vancouver at the Dawn: A Turn-of-the-Century Portrait Fred Thirkell and Bob Scullion, Postcards from the Past: Edwardian Images of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley
1998 Jury: Donna Brendon, Ian Chunn, Vickie Jensen	Chuck Davis, The Greater Vancouver Book: An Urban Encyclopaedia	Betty O'Keefe and Ian Macdonald, The Mulligan Affair: Top Cop on the Take Carmen Rodríguez, And a Body to Remember With
1999 Jury: Mark Leier, Bob Sarti, Joseph Stewart	Bud Osborn, Keys to Kingdoms	Shawn Blore and the editors of "Vancouver Magazine", Vancouver: Secrets of the City Grant Buday, White Lung
2000 Jury: Shamina Senaratne, Nina Smart, Joseph Stewart	Lilia D'Acres and Donald Luxton, Lions Gate	Christine Allen and Collin Varner, Gardens of Vancouver Wayson Choy, Paper Shadows: A Chinatown Childhood Wing Chung Ng, The Chinese in Vancouver: The Pursuit of Identity and Power, 1945-80
2001 Jury: Brenda Peterson, Shamina Senaratne, Don Stewart	Madeleine Thien, Simple Recipes	Douglas Coupland, City of Glass: Douglas Coupland's Vancouver Timothy Taylor, Stanley Park Gary Wyatt, ed., Susan Point: Coast Salish Artist
2002 Jury: Brenda Peterson, Denise Ryan, Michael Varty	Keith Carlson, A Sto:lo-Coast Salish Historical Atlas	Doreen Armitage, Burrard Inlet: A History Bart Campbell, The Door is Open: Memoir of a Soup Kitchen Volunteer Cynthia Flood, Making a Stone of the Heart
2003 Jury: George Fetherling, Michael Varty, Anne Yandle	Lincoln Clarkes, Ken Dietrich-Campbell, Patricia Canning and Elaine Allan, Heroines Reid Shier, ed., Stan Douglas: Every Building on 100 Block West Hastings	John Clague and Bob Turner, Vancouver, City on the Edge: Living with a Dynamic Geological Landscape Fiona Tinwei Lam, Intimate Distances
2004 Jury: Crystal Allen, Keith Bunnell, George Fetherling	Daniel Francis, L.D.: Mayor Louis Taylor and the Rise of Vancouver	Annabel Lyon, The Best Thing for You Paul Yee, The Bone Collector's Son Honourable Mentions: Caroline Adderson, Sitting Practice; Maggie de Vries, Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister; John Punter, The Vancouver Achievement: Urban Planning and Design
2005 Jury: Keith Bunnell, Laurie Roggeman, Max Wyman	Lance Berelowitz, Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination	Wayson Choy, All That Matters Leslie Robertson and Dara Culhane, eds., In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver Various authors, The Vancouver Stories: West Coast Fiction from Canada's Best Writers
2006 Jury: Rod Clarke, Glenn Deer, Laurie Roggeman	Jean Barman, Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point James P. Delgado, Waterfront: The Illustrated Maritime History of Greater Vancouver	Derek Hayes, Historical Atlas of Vancouver and the Lower Fraser Valley Abraham J. Rogatnick, Ian M. Thom, and Adele Weder, B.C. Binning
2007 Jury: Glenn Deer, Marc Fournier, Karen X. Tulchinsky	Michael Kluckner, Vancouver Remembered	Grant Arnold and Michael Turner, Fred Herzog: Vancouver Photographs Anita Rau Badami, Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? Brett Josef Grubisic, The Age of Cities
2008 Jury: Michelle Benjamin, Marc Fournier, Fernanda Viveiros	Brad Cran and Gillian Jerome, Hope in Shadows: Stories and Photographs of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside	Gary Geddes, Falsework Eve Lazarus, At Home With History: The Untold Secrets of Greater Vancouver's Heritage Homes Kaija Pepper, The Man Next Door Dances: The Art of Peter Bingham
2009 Jury: Janice Douglas, Fred Wah, Fernanda Viveiros	Lee Henderson, The Man Game	Gabor Maté, In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts Meredith Quartermain, Nightmarker
2010 Jury: Janice Douglas, Fred Wah, Jean Wilson	Bruce Grenville and Scott Steedman, Visions of British Columbia	George Bowering, The Box Matt Hern, Common Ground in a Liquid City Chris MacDonald, A Guidebook to Contemporary Architecture in Vancouver
2011 Jury: Emilie Dierking, Lee Henderson, Jim Wong-Chu	Michael Christie, The Beggar's Garden: Stories	Lynne Bowen, Whoever Gives Us Bread: The Story of Italians in British Columbia Wayde Compton, After Canaan: Essays on Race, Writing, and Region Lesley McKnight, Vancouver Kids
2012 Jury: Jane Bouey, David Chariandy, Rebecca Wigod	W. H. New, YVR	John Mikhail Asfour and Elee Kraljii Gardiner, eds., V6A: Writing from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Claudia Cornwall, At the World's Edge: Curt Lang's Vancouver Ali Kazimi, Undesirables: White Canada and the Komagata Maru Jen Sookfong Lee, The Better Mother
2013 Jury: Andrea Davies, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Paul Whitney	Amber Dawn, How Poetry Saved My Life: A Hustler's Memoir	Jancis M. Andrews, The Ballad of Mrs. Smith Brad Cran, Ink on Paper Harold Kalman and Robin Ward, Exploring Vancouver: The Architectural Guide Sean Kheraj, Inventing Stanley Park: An Environmental History
2014 Jury: Jordan Abel, Elee Kraljii Gardiner, Anna Ling Kaye	David Stouck, Arthur Erickson: An Architect's Life	Bruce Grierson, What Makes Olga Run? Doretta Lau, How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? Ashley Little, Anatomy of a Girl Gang: A Novel Billeh Nickerson, Artificial Cherry
2015 Jury: Anna Ling Kaye, Zoey Leigh Peterson, Sirish Rao	Wayde Compton, The Outer Harbour: Stories	Aaron Chapman, Live at the Commodore: The Story of Vancouver's Historic Commodore Ballroom Bren Simmers, Hastings-Sunrise: Poems Lois Simmie and Cynthia Nugent, Mister Got To Go, Where Are You?
2016 Jury: Shirley Lew, Zoey Leigh Peterson, Mary Schendlinger	Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Karen Duffek, and Tania Willard, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun: Unceded Territories	Wayde Compton and Renée Sarojini Saklikar, eds., The Revolving City: 51 Poems and the Stories Behind Them Lorimer Shenher, That Lonely Section of Hell: The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away
2017	Carleigh Baker, Bad Endings	Grant Arnold, Ian M. Thom, Susan Point, Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse, Thomas Cannell, Myrtle McKay and William McLennan, Susan Point: Spindle Whorl Gabrielle Prendergast, Pandas on the Eastside Sam Wiebe, Invisible Dead
2018	Chelene Knight, Dear Current Occupent	Travis Lupick, Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City's Struggle with Addiction Erín Moure, Sitting Shiva on Minto Avenue, by Toots Rachel Rose, Sustenance: Writers from BC and Beyond on the Subject of Food

External links

• City of Vancouver Book Award