George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature is a literary award given to a British Columbian author "who has achieved an outstanding degree of social awareness in a new book published in the preceding calendar year." The prize was established in 2004 by Alan Twigg and John Lent. It includes a cash award of $2,500.

Nominees and winners

Year	Winner	Finalists
2016 Jury: Trevor Carolan, Jane Curry, George Johnson	Andrew MacLeod, A Better Place on Earth: The Search for Fairness in Super Unequal British Columbia''	David R. Boyd, The Optimistic Environmentalist: Progressing Toward a Greener Future Larry Gambone, No Regrets Chris and Josh Hergesheimer, The Flour Peddlar Carrie Saxifrage, The Big Swim: Coming Ashore in a World Adrift David Suzuki, Letters to My Grandchildren
2015 Jury: George Brandak, Anne Chudyk, Beverly Cramp	Shelley Wright, Our Ice is Vanishing / Sikuvat Nunguliqtuq: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change	Michael Buckley, Meltdown in Tibet: China’s Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia Ann Rogers and John Hill, Unmanned: Drone Warfare and Global Security
2014 Judge: Sean Johnston	Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School	Adrienne Fitzpatrick, The Earth Remembers Everything Gillian Wigmore, Dirt of Ages
2013 Judge: Angie Abdou	Joel Bakan, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children	Michael Christie, The Beggar’s Garden Howard White, A Hard Man to Beat: The Story of Bill White, Labour Leader, Historian, Shipyard Worker, Raconteur
2012	No award presented
2011 Judge: Andrew Steeves	Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song	Gabor Gasztonyi, A Room in the City: Photographs of Gabor Gasztonyi Sylvia Olsen, Working with Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater Benjamin Perrin, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking John Vaillant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
2010 Judge: Greg Simison	Larry Campbell, Neil Boyd and Lori Culbert, A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its Future	Elizabeth Bachinsky, God of Missed Connections Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes
2009 Judge: Ivan Townshend	Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo	Brian Dedora, A Slice of Voice at the Edge of Hearing JoAnn Dionne, Little Emperors: A Year with the Future of China Manjit Virk, Reena: A Father's Story
2008 Judge: Ivan Townshend	Leilah Nadir, The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family	Gary Geddes, Falsework Ernest Hekkanen, Of a Fire Beyond the Hills
2007 Judge: Sharon Josephson	Harold Rhenisch, The Wolves at Evelyn: Journeys Through a Dark Century	Daniel Francis, Red Light Neon: A History of Vancouver's Sex Trade Lynne Van Luven, Nobody's Mother: Life Without Kids
2006 Judge: Myrna Kotash	Leslie A. Robertson and Dara Culhane, In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver	Jean Barman, Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point Michael Kluckner, Vanishing British Columbia
2005 Judge: Ross Tyner	Robert Hunter, The Greenpeace to Amchitka: An Environmental Odyssey	Stephen Hume and Alexandra Morton, A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming Roy Miki, Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice
2004 Judge: Craig McLuckie	Maggie De Vries, Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister	Marie Clements, Burning Vision Matt Hern, Field Day: Getting Society Out of School Patricia E. Roy, The Oriental Question: Consolidating a White Man's Province, 1914-41