Peninsula News Review | April 29, 2011
Staff Writer

Local author Sylvia Olsen’s latest writings are award-winning. The book Working With Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater was recently awarded the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing.

“As a writer and a historian, how much better does it get?” Olsen said after receiving the news of her win. Awarded annually by the BC Historical Federation, the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal recognizes the best non-fiction book representing any aspect of BC history published in a given year.

Olsen is known for her award-winning books exploring the complex territory that lies in the place between First Nations and non-First Nations culture. Olsen is also a knitter who was involved for many years in the production and marketing of Cowichan sweaters.

Olsen was also nominated for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize for her book Working With Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater.

That prize went to author Dan Savard who said it felt like he was at the Oscars when he walked across a West Vancouver ballroom to accept the B.C. Book Prize.

The recently retired Royal B.C. Museum curator won the Roderick Haig-Brown prize for his book Images from the Likeness House.

It took Savard five years to select the photos and write accompanying short essays for the book. It contains 310 images taken as photographers documented aboriginal life between the 1860s and 1920 in the Pacific Northwest.

The book was published by the Royal B.C. Museum.

The 27th annual prizes were awarded at an April 21 gala at the Kay Meek Centre.

Savard said he didn’t have an acceptance speech written and was stunned when his name was announced.

“I just went up and tried to acknowledge everyone including the other nominees and was joking about it being a very nice award and that I’d have to have it framed.”

Media Release
For Immediate Release
April 5, 2011

Award Winner: Sylvia Olsen’s Working With Wool Wins Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing

Winning the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal for Historical Writing for her recent book, Working With Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy and the Cowichan Sweater is a double thrill for Sylvia Olsen. “As a writer and a historian, how much better does it get?” Olsen said after receiving the news of her win. Awarded annually by the BC Historical Federation, the Lieutenant-Governor’s Medal recognizes the best non-fiction book representing any aspect of BC history published in a given year.

Sylvia Olsen is well known for her award-winning books exploring the complex territory that lies in the place between First Nations and non-First Nations culture. Olsen is also a knitter who was involved for many years in all aspects of the production and marketing of Cowichan sweaters. After moving to the Tsartlip First Nation almost forty years ago, Olsen was drawn to the woolworking taking place in almost every home. “My mother-in-law, Laura Olsen, was an amazing knitter and she taught me to make wool and spin.”

Blending her own experiences working with knitters and sweaters from the late ‘70s to the early ‘90s, her desire to learn as much as possible about how government and business intersected with knitters and purchasers, the stories of the knitters themselves, and more than a hundred archival photographs, Olsen has woven a fascinating narrative, a cross cultural story that involves all British Columbians, First Nations, settlers, governments, and churches. “We have all been touched by, or involved with the sweaters in one way or another,” she says.

Working With Wool has also been nominated for the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize. The award recognizes the author of the book that contributes most to the enjoyment and understanding of British Columbia and will be announced on April 21, 2011 at the 27th annual Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prize Gala, at the Kay Meek Centre in West Vancouver.

This year the BC Historical Federation’s awards banquet will be held on May 7 from 6-10pm at Dwight Hall in Powell River.

Working With Wool: A Coast Salish Legacy & the Cowichan Sweater, by Sylvia Olsen
Sono Nis Press, 2010 ($38.95)
ISBN: 978-1-55039-177-0

Purchase

Times Colonist | October 14, 2010

Greater Victoria writers Frances Backhouse and Sylvia Olsen won the city”s top literary prizes last night.

Backhouse received the City of Victoria Butler Book Prize for her non-fiction book, Children of the Klondike, published by Whitecap Books. The book was judged best in a general category that included poetry, fiction, non-fiction and biography. She was awarded a $5,000 cheque.

Backhouse”s book chronicles the stories of children who grew up between the discovery of Yukon gold in 1896 and the emergence of Dawson City as a post-gold-rush town in the early 20th century.

Olsen won the $5,000 Bolen Books Children”s Book Prize for Counting on Hope. Published by Sono Nis Press, her novel is about the complex relationship between a First Nations girl and a British girl during the British colonization of British Columbia. Alternating between prose and free verse, Counting on Hope also explores a naval assault on Kuper Island in 1863.

The awards ceremony, held at the Union Club, featured readings by all eight finalists for the prizes.

“I”m truly in shock,” Backhouse said, slotstatoridge accepting her award. “There”s so many good writers in this city,” she said, adding she was humbled to be chosen for the prize.

Olsen said she loved inspiring young people with her novels.

“I get to be with teenagers and kids and get to see that inspiration,” she said. “I”m never going to grow up and write adult novels.”

The event was hosted by Jo-Ann Roberts of CBC Radio”s All Points West.

The Victoria Book Prize Society establishes the policy and criteria for the prizes, appoints the juries and administers the competitions.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

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Adrian Chamberlain | September 10, 2010
Times Colonist

Five finalists are vying for the $5,000 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize, it was announced yesterday.

They are:

The Wolsenburg Clock by Jay Ruzesky;

Vanishing and Other Stories by Deborah Willis;

Children of the Klondike by Frances Backhouse;

The Secret Lives of Litterbugs by M.A.C. Farrant;

The Secret Signature of Things by Eve Joseph.

The three finalists for the Bolen Books Children’s Book Prize — also carrying a $5,000 prize — are Poster Boy by Dede Crane, After Peaches by Michelle Mulder and Counting on Hope by Sylvia Olsen.

Winners will be announced at a gala event at the Union Club of British Columbia on Oct. 13. Tickets are available at Munro’s Books, Bolen Books, Ivy’s Bookstore and the Victoria Book Prize Society. For details e-mail [email protected].

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

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