An author-centred book contest

Entries now being accepted: the 2025 Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society Awards
by Cathalynn Labonté-Smith

[Editor’s Note: Cathalynn Labonté-Smith is the president of the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society (SCWES). The 2025 SCWES Book Awards for BC Authors is now open to submissions for books released in 2023, 2024, or 2025. Entry deadline for the 2025 awards program is midnight May 31st, 2025.]

*

Long before this uncertain time of looming tariffs, which would include Canadian books, I felt deeply that it was important to support and promote British Columbia authors. As a nonfiction author, my dream was to create a book contest open to BC authors both traditionally and self-published.

This was a new concept as there’s a contest for indie authors (Whistler Independent Book Awards), the BC and Yukon Book Prizes that permits only publishers to enter their authors’ titles into the competition, as well as multiple national awards. However, I envisioned a competition where indie authors could put their books up against traditional publishers, and also one that books from traditional publishing houses could be directly entered by authors. The reasons being that traditional publishers are selective both about the book contests they enter and the titles entered into contests. So I wanted to remove as many barriers as possible to BC authors to enter, as well as offering special awards for Indigenous, diverse (LGBTQ+), and local Sunshine Coast authors.

As the president of the rapidly growing Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society of over one hundred members, I leapt into the unknown. Our first writing competition we undertook was in 2022, our first year of incorporation, the 50^th anniversary of The Beachcombers, so we were no strangers to taking on a challenge. The membership backed me and we’ve made it the high point of our annual Art & Words Festival.

The first year we had no idea who, if anyone, would enter books into this new contest. Nevertheless, we put judges in place, including BC bestselling authors Marion Crook, author of Always Pack a Candle and Always on Call, and Iona Wishaw, author of the Winslow Lane mystery series. The books began to arrive when we opened the contest on February 1^st, 2023, including large, heavy boxes from major eastern publishers. We needed over twenty judges to get through the volumes.

Last year was even more exciting, if that was even possible, when we created a BC Award dedicated to the late Ronald Hatch of Ronsdale Press, to honour Daniel Marshall’s bestselling book Untold Stories of Old British Columbia. Ronsdale Press generously flew Mr. Marshall to the Coast in a float plane to receive his award. Mr. Marshall captivated our audience with a reading and discussion of his book. The new owner of Ronsdale Press, Wendy Atkinson, brought the last box of books available in BC on the ferry, as the copies were sold out everywhere else for our delighted audience who were lucky enough to have them signed by Mr. Marshall.

The best part of the festival weekend is when we reveal the winners of the book contest for the authors and their family and supporters who come from all over the province and even from other parts of Canada. Seeing the faces of the authors light up when we call their names make all our months of reading, scoring, and deliberating worthwhile.

The 2025 contest is now open for books released in 2023, 2024 or 2025. Entry deadline for the 2025 awards program – midnight May 31st, 2025. All finalists receive an invitation to the awards reception held on Saturday, August 23^rd in the early evening, and stickers. Authors will do almost anything for stickers and we send a digital file so they can print as many as they wish.

The top winners receive a prize of $100 in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s/young adult genres, as well as a custom designed certificate; however, the real prize is displaying the sticker that you’re a finalist and/or a winner.

If you’re a BC resident and have a book you’d like to enter, mail a print copy to 787 Madison Place, Gibsons, BC V0N 1V1 AND an ebook, or PDF of the book to sunshinecoastwritersandeditors@gmail.com with a cover letter containing your name, address, phone number, and email address. If you can’t send an electronic version of your book, please send TWO print copies.

The entry fee is $50/book, or $15 per book if you’re under 18 years-old.  E-transfer the fee to sunshinecoastwritersandeditors@gmail.com, or send a cheque made payable to SCWES along with your entry.

I hope to see you in our audience this August 22-24^th or in our finalists’ circle.

*

Part of the fourth generation on her father’s side to live in British Columbia, Cathalynn Cindy Labonté-Smith grew up in southwestern Alberta and moved to Vancouver to complete her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at UBC. She is the author of the BC-bestselling nonfiction book, Rescue Me: Behind the Scenes of Search and Rescue (Caitlin Press, 2022), is a member of Civil Air Search and Rescue, and lives in Gibsons and North Vancouver. She is the founder and president of the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society and is the director of the SCWES Art & Words Festival.

[Editor’s Note: Cathalynn Labonté-Smith has previously written about the Sunshine Coast Tale Trail and has reviewed a recent title by Bob McDonald for The British Columbia Review.]