The Prince George Public Library Board announced the nominees for the 35th annual Jeanne Clarke Awards Thursday. The Jeanne Clarke Local History Award was established by the Prince George Public Library Board in 1985, in memory of former library board chair Jeanne Clarke.
The nominees for the publication award are Shared Histories: Witsuwit’en-Settler Relations in Smithers, British Columbia, 1913-1973 by Tyler McCreary (2018); Every Little Scrap and Wonder by Carla Funk (2019); Song of the Earth: The Life of Alfred Joseph by Ross Hoffman and Alfred Joseph (2019); Voices from the Skeena: An Illustrated Oral History by Robert Budd with Illustrations by Roy Henry Vickers (2019); A Milestone on the Nechako by Trelle A. Morrow (2019); Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid (2019); As the River Flows: Stories of Life Along the Nechako by the Nechako Valley Historical Society (2019); and Uphill Both Ways by Curt Garland (2019).
The award is presented annually to individuals or groups for outstanding contributions in the preservation and promotion of local and regional history in the categories of publication and service. The awards reception will take place at the Central B.C. Railway & Forestry Museum on Sunday, February 23rd.
Past winners of the publication award include Aaron Williams for Chasing Smoke: A Wildfire Memoir, Jonathan Swainger for Aspiration: A History of the University of Northern British Columbia to 2015, and Helen Raptis with members of the Tsimshian Nation for What We Learned: Two Generations Reflect on Tsimshian Education and the Day Schools.
Past winners of the service award include Trelle Morrow, the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, and the Select Committee on Prince George’s 100th Anniversary Celebration.
Jeanne Clarke was a founding member of the Prince George Public Library’s Local History Committee, and played a key role in establishing the Prince George Public Library’s local history collection.
For more information on the reception, visit www.pgpl.ca/events.