A LOCAL won a BC Book Prize for her new collection of poetry.
Sarah de Leeuw won the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize for the best work of poetry for Geographies of a Lover, which includes $2,000 in prize money.
De Leeuw, who graduated from the University of Northern BC, grew up on Haida Gwaii and graduated from high school in Terrace.
She is a two-time recipient of a CBC Literary Award in Creative Non-Fiction, and an assistant professor in the Northern Medical Program.
De Leeuw is the author of two books of essays, Unmarked: Landscapes Along Highway 16 and Front Lines: Portraits of Care Givers in Northern British Columbia, which featured several locals.
She is also the current president of the Two Rivers Gallery Board of Trustees and a director with the Prince George Elizabeth Fry Society Board of Directors.
This West Coast Book Prize Society gala for the 29th Annual BC Book Prizes was hosted by the Honourable Judith Guichon, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, and emceed by Grant Lawrence, at Government House in Victoria on May 4.