2026 Vancouver Book Award Ceremony
Who gets to tell the story of a city? On Saturday, November 28, the Museum of Vancouver fills with the voices that do.
Join us for the 2026 Vancouver Book Award Ceremony, where six finalists will read from their work and one will be named this year’s winner. Since 1989, this award has honoured books that help us understand Vancouver: its history, its character, its diversity, and the people who make it what it is.
Six Books, One City
From the life of Joe Fortes to the history of Chinatown, from a lifelong search for belonging to a frontline account of the war on drugs, this year’s finalists look at Vancouver from every angle:
- Ruby Smith Diaz, Searching for Serafim: The Life and Legacy of Serafim “Joe” Fortes (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Daniela Elza, SCAR/CITY (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
- Larry Grant with Scott Steedman, Reconciling: A Lifelong Struggle to Belong (ECW Press)
- Garth Mullins, Crackdown: Surviving and Resisting the War on Drugs (Doubleday Canada)
- Cecily Nicholson, Crowd Source (Talonbooks)
- Donna Seto, Chinatown Vancouver: An Illustrated History (House of Anansi Press)
Hear It from the Authors
There’s nothing like hearing a book read aloud by the person who wrote it. Every finalist will take the stage, and they’ll be joined by two of the city’s own poets: elee kraljii gardiner, the City of Vancouver’s Poet Laureate, and Jong Yun Won, the Citizen Poet in Residence at the Museum of Vancouver.
Stay after the readings to browse the finalists’ books, which will be on sale from Book Warehouse, and to be there when the $3,000 prize is awarded.
Save Your Spot
Saturday, November 28, 2026
11 am to 1 pm
Museum of Vancouver
Registration is required, so reserve your place here. Masks are mandatory for all attendees.
Presented by the West Coast Book Prize Society. The Vancouver Book Award is funded by the City of Vancouver Publishing Reserve, a legacy for Vancouver writers and publishers since 1977.