Banff Mountain Book Competition finalists announced
- Monday 21st September 2020
The 2020 Banff Mountain Book Competition Category Finalists have been announced.
In an eagerly awaited announcement the category finalists for the 2020 Banff Mountain Book Competition, a key element of the annual Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, have been published.
The Book Competition is an internationally recognized literary competition that celebrates mountain literature in all its forms. Over $20,000 in cash is awarded annually with eight awards selected by an international jury of writers, adventurers and editors.
The 2020 category longlist contains no less than four titles from the Sheffield-based outdoor publishing specialist, Vertebrate Publishing; Crack Climbing by Pete Whittaker, Winter 8000 by Bernadette McDonald, Sky Dance by John D. Burns and Hard Rock by Ian Parnell.
It follows a run of Banff successes for Vertebrate Publishing who have scooped Banff category awards on several prior occasions most recently with Art of Freedom by Bernadette McDonald which won the Mountain Literature Non-fiction prize in 2017, The Bond by Simon McCartney which won the Mountain and Wilderness Literature category in 2016 and One Day as a Tiger by John Porter which won the Mountaineering History category and then the Grand Prize in 2014.
In addition, a further three titles from the UK have been selected as category finalists including; Himalaya: A Human History by Ed Douglas and published by The Bodley Head, Vintage, Black Car Burning by Helen Mort and published by Chatto & Windus as well as Down: The Complete Descent Manual for Climbers by Andy Kirkpatrick.
The 2020 Banff Mountain Competition category award winners will be announced in October and presentations will be part of the virtual festival October 31 – November 8. The Grand Prize will be announced Thursday November 5th.
The full list of category finalists, selected by the international jury, follows:
Mountain Literature
$2000 - Sponsored by the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Emilio Comici: Angel of the Dolomites
David Smart, Rocky Mountain Books (Canada, 2020)
Himalaya: A Human History
Ed Douglas, The Bodley Head, Vintage (UK, 2020)
Raven’s Witness: The Alaska Life of Richard K. Nelson
Hank Lentfer, Mountaineers Book (USA, 2020)
Winter 8000: Climbing the World’s Highest Mountains in the Coldest Season
Bernadette McDonald, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2020)/ Vertebrate Publishing (UK, 2020)
Mountain Fiction & Poetry
$2000 - Sponsored by the Town of Banff
The Bear
Andrew Krivak, Bellevue Literary Press (USA, 2020)
Black Car Burning
Helen Mort, Chatto & Windus (UK, 2019)
Sky Dance
John Burns, Vertebrate Publishing (UK, 2019)
Mountain Environment and Natural History
$2000 – Sponsored by Canadian Mountain Network
Talking with Bears: Conversations with Charlie Russell
Gay Bradshaw, Rocky Mountain Books (Canada, 2020)
Tahoma and Its People: A Natural History of Mount Rainier National Park
Jeff Antonelis-Lapp, Washington State University Press (USA, 2020)
Wild Himalaya: A Natural History of the Greatest Mountain Range on Earth
Stephen Alter, Aleph Book Company (India, 2019)
Adventure Travel
$2000 - World Expeditions
The Adventurer’s Son
Roman Dial, HarperCollins Publishers (USA, 2020)
Blue Sky Kingdom: An Epic Family Journey to the Heart of Himalaya
Bruce Kirkby, Douglas & McIntyre (Canada, 2020)
Journeys North: The Pacific Crest Trail
Barney Mann, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2020)
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition
Buddy Levy, St. Martin’s Press (USA, 2019)
Mountain Image
$2000
Climbing Rock
Francois Lebeau and Jesse Lynch, Rizzoli New York (USA, 2019)
At Glacier’s End
Chris Burkard, Chris Burkard Studio (USA, 2019)
The Wild Coasts of Canada
Scott Forsyth, Rocky Mountain Books (Canada, 2019)
Guidebooks
$2000 – Sponsored by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides
Crack Climbing: The Definitive Guide
Pete Whittaker, Vertebrate Publishing (UK, 2020)/ Mountaineers Books (USA, 2020)
Down: The Complete Descent Manual for Climbers
Andy Kirkpatrick (Ireland, 2019)
Hard Rock
Ian Parnell, Vertebrate Publishing (UK, 2020)
Mountaineering Article
$2000 – Sponsored by the University of Alberta and the Alpine Club of Canada
Denali, A Universe
Jan Harper-Haines, Alpinist Magazine (USA, September 2019)
Leper Chai
Jeff Long, Rock & Ice Magazine (USA, March 2020)
Melting Giants
Benjamin Ribeyre and Erin Smart, Alpinist Magazine (USA, November 2019)
Climbing Literature
$2000 - Sponsored by RMB - Rocky Mountain Books
All titles that are shortlisted in the categories above that have a theme of climbing are eligible for this award.
Grand Prize - The Phyllis and Don Munday Award
$4000 – Sponsored by Rab
The shortlist of category award winners eligible for the Grand Prize will be announced in mid-October.