West Coast Book Prize Society announces 2026 Vancouver Book Award finalists
Ruby Smith Diaz, Daniela Elza, and Donna Seto are among the six writers shortlisted for this year’s prize
THE WEST COAST BOOK Prize Society has just announced this year’s shortlist for the Vancouver Book Award.
Since 1989, the annual $3,000 prize has recognized books in any genre that add to public understanding of the city’s rich history, diversity, and residents.
The 2026 finalists are:
Ruby Smith Diaz’s Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes, published by Arsenal Pulp Press, honouring the story of Vancouver’s first lifeguard from a contemporary Black perspective.
Daniela Elza’s SCAR/CITY, a poetry collection published by McGill-Queen’s University Press that explores how the housing crisis has reshaped our ideas about community and belonging.
Larry Grant’s Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong, told in conversation with writer Scott Steedman and published by ECW Press, tracing the life of the Musqueam and Chinese Elder and sharing his reflections on reconciliation.
Garth Mullins’s Crackdown: Surviving and Resisting the War on Drugs, published by Doubleday Canada, challenging the harmful systemic approach to drug use through an intimate blend of memoir and manifesto.
Cecily Nicholson’s Crowd Source, a poetry collection published by Talonbooks, examining the daily migration of crows across Metro Vancouver as a way of understanding the city and its residents.
Donna Seto’s Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History, published by House of Anansi Press, celebrating Chinatown’s diverse community.
The winner will be revealed at the Vancouver Book Award Ceremony on November 21 at the Vancouver Public Library’s Alice McKay Room. 
Related Articles
