Victoria writers Madeline Sonik and Caitlyn Vernon each won a $5,000 prize at the Victoria Book Prize Society gala Wednesday night.
Sonik's literary non-fiction work Afflictions and Departures (Anvil Press) won the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize. It's a collection of first-person essays based on her growing up in the late 1950s and 1960s.
Sonik is a writer and editor teaching at the University of Victoria. She has a master of fine arts in creative writing and a PhD in education.
Her work is published extensively in journals, magazine and academic anthologies.
Vernon won the Bolen Books Children's Book Prize for Nowhere Else on Earth; Standing Tall for the Great Bear Rainforest (Orca Book Publishers). It provides information on sa国际传媒's Great Bear Rainforest as well as suggestions for preserving it.
A Sierra Club campaigner, Vernon has a background in biology and environmental studies. In September, Nowhere Else on Earth won the Lane Anderson Award for science writing aimed at young readers.
The awards ceremony was held at the Union Club of Victoria.
