You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
UK mountaineering literature publisher Vertebrate Publishing has three titles chosen as category finalists for the 2014 Banff Mountain Book Competition.
Philip Temple’s e-book-only mountaineering novel The Mantis is a finalist in the Mountain Fiction and Poetry category, while Hanging On by Martin Boysen and One Day As A Tiger by John Porter are among the six titles selected for the Mountain and Wilderness Literature category.
This is the 21st year of the Canadian awards, which represent the biggest prizes in publishing in the outdoor, adventure and environment genres.
Following the announcement of the category finalists, Vertebrate’s publishing manager John Coefield commented: “This year’s list features many strong titles, so we’re chuffed to bits that both Martin and John have made the list for this year’s Banff awards, especially following Martin’s nomination for the Boardman Tasker Prize. Furthermore, to see Banff listing our e-book-only novel The Mantis is testament to the strength of Philip’s writing and the festival’s modern approach to literature.”
Also chosen in the Mountain and Wilderness Literature Non-Fiction category are: The Calling by Barry Blanchard (Patagonia Books); Climber’s Paradise by PearlAnn Reichwein (University of Alberta Press); The Homeward Wolf by Kevin Van Tighem (Rocky Mountain Books); and Mountains in my Heart by Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner (The Mountaineers Books).
In the Mountain Fiction and Poetry category, Temple’s novel is joined by Chi Zijian’s The Last Quarter of the Moon (Harvill Secker) and David Stevenson’s Letters from Chamonix (Imaginary Mountain Surveyors). Patagonia Books’ Climbing Fitz Roy 1968 by Yvon Chouinard, Chris Jones, Dick Dorworth, Lito Tejada-Flores and Doug Tompkins is a category finalist for the Mountain Image prize, alongside Paul Zizka’s Summits and Starlight (Rocky Mountain Books), Carsten Peter’s Vulkane (National Geographic/NG Malik Buchgesellschaft) and Crown of the Continent by Steven Gnam and Douglas Chadwick (Braided River/The Mountaineers Books).
The category finalists in the Adventure Travel category are: The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko (Scribner); Last Train to Zona Verde by Paul Theroux (McClelland & Stewart); Living the Best Day Ever by Hendri Coetzee (Hendri Coetzee Trust); Mother of God by Paul Rosolie (HarperCollins Publishers); and Arno Kopecky’s The Oil Man and the Sea (Douglas & McIntyre).
In the Guidebooks category, David Flanagan’s Bouldering Essentials (Three Rocks Books) is up against Marc Bourdon’s Squamish Bouldering (Quickdraw Publications) and Paddy Dillon’s Walking and Trekking in Iceland (Cicerone Press). The category is rounded out by: Simple Fly Fishing by Yvon Chouinard, Craig Mathews and Mauro Mazzo (Patagonia Books); Training for the New Alpinism by Steve House and Scott Johnston (Patagonia Books); and Yosemite Bigwalls by Roger Putnam and Erik Sloan (Yosemite Bigwalls).
The Banff Mountain Book Competition category winners are due to be announced in October, with the winner of the Grand Prize to be announced on Thursday 6th November 2014 at the Banff Mountain Film and Book Festival.