The GEORGE WOODOCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD annually honours an outstanding literary career in British Columbia. Since 1994, the City of Vancouver (Mayor of Vancouver's office), the Vancouver Public Library, and a non-profit society (Pacific BookWorld News Society, founded in 1988) have been working in partnership to jointly sponsor and present an annual $5,000 prize to a senior B.C. author whose enduring contribution to the literary arts spans several decades. Terasen (formerly BC Gas) concluded its sponsorship of the award in 2006.

The GEORGE WOODCOCK LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for B.C. has been widely publicized in The Vancouver Sun and other media since its inception. Each year another commemorative plaque is installed in the Writers' Walk at the Vancouver Public Library on Georgia Street in Vancouver. The Mayor of Vancouver, or his representative, attends a presentation ceremony at the Vancouver Public Library and issues a proclamation in honour of the recipient. Winners are announced with press releases and full-page notices in B.C. BookWorld which reaches 100,000 readers per issue via more than 700 outlets throughout B.C.



Winners' Plaques
on the Writers' Walk
at the Vancouver Public Library
Winners are nominated by letters from the general public. A selection committee consists of the board of directors of Pacific BookWorld News Society. These presently include:

Paul Whitney (Director, Vancouver Public Library); Howard White (Publisher, Encyclopedia of British Columbia); Jean Barman, UBC Historian, author of The West Beyond the West: The History of British Columbia), Dr. Rowland Lorimer (Director, Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing), Andreas Schroeder (author, former director, UBC Creative Writing), David Kerfoot (bookseller) and Margaret Reynolds (Executive Director, Association of Book Publishers of B.C.).

There is no descrimination with regards to genres of writing other than all recipients must be authors of books.

For more information about the George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award, contact 604-736-4011. To nominate a candidate for the award, send a brief letter or postcard to George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award c/o BC BookWorld, 3516 West 13th Avenue Vancouver B.C. V6R 2S3.