Surrey-based author Christina Myers has added a Canadian Book Club Award to the list of accolades for her novel about two unlikely companions on a cross-country road trip.
Myers’ “The List of Last Chances,” published by Caitlin Press, won best fiction in the 2023 book club awards, involving 12 categories found on thecanadianbookclubawards.ca. The other finalists for fiction were “Finding Callidora” (by Stella Leventoyannis Harvey) and “Stork Lake: Tales from a Wall of Hats (L.C. Reid).
The Canadian Book Club Awards are considered the country’s largest reader-choice awards, and B.C. authors represented 25 per cent of finalists nationally.
“Some of my favourite experiences as an author have been with book clubs who have invited me to join them by zoom or who have sent along notes of appreciation after they had read the book as a group,” Myers noted.
Her “The List of Last Chances” was previously longlisted for the 2022 Leacock Medal for Literary Humour and shortlisted for the 2022 Fred Kerner Book Prize.
The 2021 novel, which explores the topic of older women and sexuality in a lighthearted way, details a PEI-to-Vancouver road trip involving a single unemployed woman named Ruthie and an aging mother, Kay – two reluctant travel companions connected only by an ad for driving services placed by Kay’s son, David.
Myers, a former journalist, had her own cross-Canada experiences as a child, having crossed the country many times on family camping road trips and also to move from one province to another. “There are trips we do for fun, and trips we do because we have no choice, but both kinds change us,” the author says. “The characters in this book don’t want to be on this particular trip but their lives are transformed by it.”
Myers says her next book, a collection of essays titled “Halfway Home: Thoughts from Midlife,” will be out next May from House of Anansi. Look for her online at cmyers.ca.
For the Canadian Book Club Awards, 12 authors were chosen by “a dedicated, independent panel of readers,” who voted on the winners from three finalists in each category.”
This has been “an extraordinary year that broke all previous submission records,” awards organizers said in a news release earlier this month. Submissions for 2024 are now open.
For 2023, winners in 12 categories are detailed below.
FICTION: “The List of Last Chances” by Christina Myers (Caitlin Press);
NONFICTION/MEMOIR: “Fuse” by Hollay Ghadery (Guernica Editions);
SPIRITUALITY/ HEALTH & WELLNESS: “Soul Excavation: An Exploration and Discovery of Self Through Fear, Failure, and Quantum Physics” by Lesia Daria Kohut (Hybrid Global Publishing);
BUSINESS/SELF-HELP: “At Home Anywhere: Feel At Home Wherever Life Takes You” by Rachael Lynn (The Dreamwork Collective);
ANTHOLOGY: “Awfully Hilarious” by Heather Hendrie (Independently Published);
ROMANCE: “How to Love Your Neighbor” by Sophie Sullivan (St. Martin’s Grin);
MYSTERY/THRILLER: “All The Broken People by Amy Rivers (Compathy Press);
FANTASY/SCI-FI: “Mantle of the World Ruler by Kate Gateley (Friesen Press);
POETRY: “Blooming: Poetry for Seasons of Change” by Chiara Mason (TSPA, The Self Publishing Agency Inc.);
CHILDRENS: “The Little Girl by Hieu Pham-Fraser (Friesen Press);
EARLY READERS: “The Dinosaur Encounter: The Alberta Episode” by Lisa Oatway (Tellwell Talent);
YA: “In One Life and Out Another by J Mercer (Bare Ink).