2016 Award Winners

Fiction – the Diamond Foundation Prize
Tom Wayman – The Shadows We Mistake for Love
A resident of BC’s West Kootenay region, Tom Wayman has published 3 books of fiction and over a dozen collections of poems, essays and anthologies. The Shadows We Mistake for Love, his newest short story collection explores the intricate web of shared history, common needs and complex relationships that evolve in isolated locations.

Non-Fiction – the Pinsky Givon Family Prize
Bob Bossin – Davy the Punk
A resident of Gabriola Island, Bob Bossin is a celebrated folk musician who has also spent much of his life researching his father’s story. The funny and insightful Davy the Punk is the book of his father’s life in Toronto’s gambling underworld of the 30’s and 40’s, revealing a city rife with anti-Semitism at the time. Bossin has also turned the book into a successful touring performance piece.

Poetry – the Betty Averbach Foundation Prize
Ella Zeltserman – small things left behind
Ella Zeltserman is a Soviet-born poet and a member of the Edmonton poetry community. Small things left behind is her first poetry collection, a lyrical and authentic account of Russian-Jewish immigration to Canada during the Cold War.

Children & Youth – the Jonathan & Heather Berkowitz Prize
Glenda Leznoff – Heartache and Other Natural Shocks
Glenda Leznoff is a Vancouver writer, college professor and artist who launched her career as a playwright before creating scripts for film & TV. Full of unexpected twists and turns, Heartache and Other Natural Shocks is an exploration of teen rivalry, marking an important new voice in young-adult fiction.

Holocaust – the Marsid Foundation Prize
Adara Goldberg – Holocaust Survivors in Canada
A resident of Vancouver, Adara Goldberg is currently 2016-17 Azrieli International Post-Doctoral Fellow in Israel. Holocaust Survivors in Canada highlights the immigration, resettlement and integration from the perspective of the survivors.

The 2016 Western Canada Jewish Book Awards jury was comprised of: Shula Banchik, Cultural Arts Director at the Calgary JCC, Elisabeth Kushner, author and librarian (Vancouver), William H. New, poet, literary critic and UBC English professor (ret.), Norman Ravvin (Montreal) writer, critic and Concordia University professor and Harriet Zaidman (Winnipeg), author, book reviewer and teacher-librarian.