The 2008 winner of Canada’s largest literary non-fiction prize, the BC Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, will be announced in a special ceremony in Vancouver on February 7, 2008.

In the running for the $40,000 prize are Donald Harman Akenson, Lorna Goodison, and Jacques Poitras.

Why is this cool?

It is the only national book prize to originate in BC, and the non-fiction counterpart to other major awards such as the Giller Prize for fiction and the Griffin Poetry Prize.

Turner-Riggs has 5 great reasons on why you should care about this fantastic prize and some ideas on how to participate in the prize announcement. My favourites are

1) Tune in to CBC Radio 1’s Almanac at noon to 1:00 pm PST February 4, 5, and 6 for interviews with the finalists, and to North by Northwest the following weekend for their interview with the award winner

and

2) Enter to win the three finalists’ books by writing to Turner-Riggs at {knockknock@turner-riggs.com} and telling them your favourite Canadian non-fiction book from the past year. Your email will automatically enter you in the contest.

I’m raising a glass to Canadian non-fiction books!