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 George Ryga Award The prize was created in 2004 by Alan Twigg, publisher of BC Book World, along with John Lent of Okanagan College and Ken Smedley, then working for the George Ryga Centre Society. In 2014 Alan Twigg took over responsibility for the award after the sale of Ryga House. Originally the prize included a sculpture/plaque by sculptor, Reg Kienast, entitled The Censor's Golden Rope. Now it includes a cash award of $2,500.
Nominees and winners YearWinnerFinalists 2004Judge: Craig McLuckie Maggie De Vries, Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished SisterMarie 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 2005Judge: Ross Tyner Robert Hunter, The Greenpeace to Amchitka: An Environmental OdysseyStephen Hume and Alexandra Morton, A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming Roy Miki, Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice 2006Judge: Myrna Kotash Leslie A. Robertson and Dara Culhane, In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside VancouverJean Barman, Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point Michael Kluckner, Vanishing British Columbia 2007Judge: Sharon Josephson Harold Rhenisch, The Wolves at Evelyn: Journeys Through a Dark CenturyDaniel Francis, Red Light Neon: A History of Vancouver's Sex Trade Lynne Van Luven, Nobody's Mother: Life Without Kids 2008Judge: Ivan Townshend Leilah Nadir, The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost FamilyGary Geddes, Falsework Ernest Hekkanen, Of a Fire Beyond the Hills 2009Judge: Ivan Townshend Steven Galloway, The Cellist of SarajevoBrian 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 2010Judge: Greg Simison Larry Campbell, Neil Boyd and Lori Culbert, A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its FutureElizabeth Bachinsky, God of Missed Connections Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes 2011Judge: Andrew Steeves Richard Wagamese, One Story, One SongGabor 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 2012 No award presented 2013Judge: Angie Abdou Joel Bakan, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets ChildrenMichael Christie, The Beggar's Garden Howard White, A Hard Man to Beat: The Story of Bill White, Labour Leader, Historian, Shipyard Worker, Raconteur 2014Judge: Sean Johnston Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential SchoolAdrienne Fitzpatrick, The Earth Remembers Everything Gillian Wigmore, Dirt of Ages 2015Jury: George Brandak, Anne Chudyk, Beverly Cramp Shelley Wright, Our Ice is Vanishing / Sikuvat Nunguliqtuq: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate ChangeMichael 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 2016Jury: 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 2017Jury: Trevor Carolan, Jane Curry, Beverley Cramp Wade Davis, Wade Davis: PhotographsStephen Collis, Once in Blockadia Ivan Coyote, Tomboy Survival Guide Marc Edge, The News We Deserve: The Transformation of Canada's Media Landscape James Hoggan with Grania Litwin, I'm Right and You're an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up Eric Jamieson, The Native Voice: The Story of How Maisie Hurley and Canada's First Aboriginal Newspaper Changed a Nation Alan Livingstone MacLeod, Remembered in Bronze and Stone: Canada's Great War Memorial Statuary Christopher Pollon and Ben Nelms, The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Dam Anton Scamvougeras, Dysconnected: Humans Isolated by their Personal Technology Ron Smith, The Defiant Mind: Living Inside a Stroke 2018 Travis Lupick, Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City's Struggle with Addiction''Gary Geddes, Medicine Unbundled: A Journey through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care David Suzuki and Ian Hanington, Just Cool It! The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do 2019 Rod Mickleburgh, On the Line: A History of the British Columbia Labour Movement'' 2020 Diane Pinch, Passion & Persistence: Fifty Years of the Sierra Club in British Columbia''The Graphic History Collective and David Lester, 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg Strike Wendy Wickwire, At the Bridge: James Teit and an Anthropology of Belonging Ross Hoffman with Alfred Joseph, Song of the Earth: The Life of Alfred Joseph Philip Huynh, The Forbidden Purple City 2021 Geoff Mynett, Service on the Skeena: Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician''Jean Barman, On the Cusp of Contact: Gender, Space, and Race in the Colonization of B.C. Emma Hansen, Still: Love, Loss, and Motherhood Benjamin Perrin, Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada's Opioid Crisis Maureen Webb, Coding Democracy: How Hackers are Disrupting Power, Surveillance, and Authoritarianism 2022 Alexandra Morton, Not On My Watch: How a Renegade Whale Biologist Took on Governments and Industry to Save Wild Salmon''Darrel J. McLeod, Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest David Spaner, Solidarity: Canada's Unknown Revolution of 1983 Jody Wilson-Raybould, “Indian” in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power
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