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Betty Keller named recipient of the 12th annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence

March 25th, 2015

The West Coast Book Prize Society is proud to recognize Betty Keller as the recipient of the 12th annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. British Columbia’s Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Judith Guichon, will present the award at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prizes Gala to be held at the Pinnacle Vancouver Harbourfront Hotel in Vancouver on Saturday, April 25, 2015.

“As a writer, editor, teacher, mentor, arts activist and organizer, Betty Keller has long been a passionate and versatile contributor to the BC writing community. Her fiction, biographies, drama, non-fiction, and articles provide unique perspectives on the province she has lived in all her life. Hundreds of writers have been nourished and encouraged by her dedicated teaching and mentoring. Her greatest legacy is as the indefatigable founder and innovative producer of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, one of the great literary gatherings in Canada. Betty Keller is a long-respected matriarch of the literary arts in this province. We are delighted to recognize her remarkable literary career and her outstanding community contributions.” (Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence jury)

Betty Keller was born in Vancouver, BC, and moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1980. She says, “I am proud to be a third-generation BC person as my great grandfather and grandfather arrived in Vancouver in the spring of 1886, a month before Vancouver was incorporated as a city.”

She is a teacher, mentor, editor, and writer, and has authored or co-authored many books, including biographies, histories, plays, and novels. She is a founder of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and the Writers in Residence Program. Betty has won numerous awards for her literary work. She is an avid potter, gardener, and fisherperson.

The jury for this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence was: Kit Pearson, author of literature for young adults, children’s librarian, and 2014 recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence; Michael Kluckner, Canadian writer and artist; and, Sandra Singh, Chief Librarian, Vancouver Public Library.

This prize was established in 2003 by former Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Iona Campagnolo, to recognize British Columbia writers who have contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province. The recipient receives a cash award of $5,000 and a commemorative certificate. The 2014 recipient was Kit Pearson.

All BC Book Prizes info here