# George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature

The George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature is a literary award given to a British Columbian author "who has achieved an outstanding degree of social awareness in a new book published in the preceding calendar year." The prize was created in 2004 by Alan Twigg, publisher of BC Book World, along with John Lent of Okanagan College and Ken Smedley, then working for the George Ryga Centre Society. In 2014 Alan Twigg took over responsibility for the award after the sale of Ryga House. Originally the prize included a sculpture/plaque by sculptor, Reg Kienast, entitled The Censor's Golden Rope. Now it includes a cash award of $2,500.

## Nominees and winners

| Year | Winner | Finalists |
| 2004 Judge: Craig McLuckie | Maggie De Vries, Missing Sarah: A Vancouver Woman Remembers Her Vanished Sister | Marie Clements, Burning Vision Matt Hern, Field Day: Getting Society Out of School Patricia E. Roy, The Oriental Question: Consolidating a White Man's Province, 1914-41 |
| 2005 Judge: Ross Tyner | Robert Hunter, The Greenpeace to Amchitka: An Environmental Odyssey | Stephen Hume and Alexandra Morton, A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming Roy Miki, Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice |
| 2006 Judge: Myrna Kotash | Leslie A. Robertson and Dara Culhane, In Plain Sight: Reflections on Life in Downtown Eastside Vancouver | Jean Barman, Stanley Park's Secret: The Forgotten Families of Whoi Whoi, Kanaka Ranch, and Brockton Point Michael Kluckner, Vanishing British Columbia |
| 2007 Judge: Sharon Josephson | Harold Rhenisch, The Wolves at Evelyn: Journeys Through a Dark Century | Daniel Francis, Red Light Neon: A History of Vancouver's Sex Trade Lynne Van Luven, Nobody's Mother: Life Without Kids |
| 2008 Judge: Ivan Townshend | Leilah Nadir, The Orange Trees of Baghdad: In Search of My Lost Family | Gary Geddes, Falsework Ernest Hekkanen, Of a Fire Beyond the Hills |
| 2009 Judge: Ivan Townshend | Steven Galloway, The Cellist of Sarajevo | Brian Dedora, A Slice of Voice at the Edge of Hearing JoAnn Dionne, Little Emperors: A Year with the Future of China Manjit Virk, Reena: A Father's Story |
| 2010 Judge: Greg Simison | Larry Campbell, Neil Boyd and Lori Culbert, A Thousand Dreams: Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and the Fight for Its Future | Elizabeth Bachinsky, God of Missed Connections Kevin Loring, Where the Blood Mixes |
| 2011 Judge: Andrew Steeves | Richard Wagamese, One Story, One Song | Gabor Gasztonyi, A Room in the City: Photographs of Gabor Gasztonyi Sylvia Olsen, Working with Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater Benjamin Perrin, Invisible Chains: Canada's Underground World of Human Trafficking John Vaillant, The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival |
| 2012 | No award presented | |
| 2013 Judge: Angie Abdou | Joel Bakan, Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Targets Children | Michael Christie, The Beggar's Garden Howard White, A Hard Man to Beat: The Story of Bill White, Labour Leader, Historian, Shipyard Worker, Raconteur |
| 2014 Judge: Sean Johnston | Bev Sellars, They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School | Adrienne Fitzpatrick, The Earth Remembers Everything Gillian Wigmore, Dirt of Ages |
| 2015 Jury: George Brandak, Anne Chudyk, Beverly Cramp | Shelley Wright, Our Ice is Vanishing / Sikuvat Nunguliqtuq: A History of Inuit, Newcomers, and Climate Change | Michael Buckley, Meltdown in Tibet: China's Reckless Destruction of Ecosystems from the Highlands of Tibet to the Deltas of Asia Ann Rogers and John Hill, Unmanned: Drone Warfare and Global Security |
| 2016 Jury: Trevor Carolan, Jane Curry, George Johnson | Andrew MacLeod, A Better Place on Earth: The Search for Fairness in Super Unequal British Columbia'' | David R. Boyd, The Optimistic Environmentalist: Progressing Toward a Greener Future Larry Gambone, No Regrets Chris and Josh Hergesheimer, The Flour Peddlar Carrie Saxifrage, The Big Swim: Coming Ashore in a World Adrift David Suzuki, Letters to My Grandchildren |
| 2017 Jury: Trevor Carolan, Jane Curry, Beverley Cramp | Wade Davis, Wade Davis: Photographs | Stephen Collis, Once in Blockadia Ivan Coyote, Tomboy Survival Guide Marc Edge, The News We Deserve: The Transformation of Canada's Media Landscape James Hoggan with Grania Litwin, I'm Right and You're an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up Eric Jamieson, The Native Voice: The Story of How Maisie Hurley and Canada's First Aboriginal Newspaper Changed a Nation Alan Livingstone MacLeod, Remembered in Bronze and Stone: Canada's Great War Memorial Statuary Christopher Pollon and Ben Nelms, The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Dam Anton Scamvougeras, Dysconnected: Humans Isolated by their Personal Technology Ron Smith, The Defiant Mind: Living Inside a Stroke |
| 2018 | Travis Lupick, Fighting for Space: How a Group of Drug Users Transformed One City's Struggle with Addiction'' | Gary Geddes, Medicine Unbundled: A Journey through the Minefields of Indigenous Health Care David Suzuki and Ian Hanington, Just Cool It! The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do |
| 2019 | Rod Mickleburgh, On the Line: A History of the British Columbia Labour Movement'' | |
| 2020 | Diane Pinch, Passion & Persistence: Fifty Years of the Sierra Club in British Columbia'' | The Graphic History Collective and David Lester, 1919: A Graphic History of the Winnipeg Strike Wendy Wickwire, At the Bridge: James Teit and an Anthropology of Belonging Ross Hoffman with Alfred Joseph, Song of the Earth: The Life of Alfred Joseph Philip Huynh, The Forbidden Purple City |
| 2021 | Geoff Mynett, Service on the Skeena: Horace Wrinch, Frontier Physician'' | Jean Barman, On the Cusp of Contact: Gender, Space, and Race in the Colonization of B.C. Emma Hansen, Still: Love, Loss, and Motherhood Benjamin Perrin, Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada's Opioid Crisis Maureen Webb, Coding Democracy: How Hackers are Disrupting Power, Surveillance, and Authoritarianism |
| 2022 | Alexandra Morton, Not On My Watch: How a Renegade Whale Biologist Took on Governments and Industry to Save Wild Salmon'' | Darrel J. McLeod, Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest David Spaner, Solidarity: Canada's Unknown Revolution of 1983 Jody Wilson-Raybould, “Indian” in the Cabinet: Speaking Truth to Power |