The Phyllis and Don Munday Award - Grand Prize in the 2016 Banff Mountain Book Competition has been awarded to Ice Diaries: An Antarctica Memoir, the story of author Jean McNeil's year spent on the continent of Antarctica.
The book, from publishers ECW Press, was chosen out of 147 mountain and adventure literature submissions from authors hailing from nine countries.
Written a decade ago while McNeil was the writer-in-residence with the British Antarctica Survey, Ice Diaries is part travelogue mixed with popular science and memoir.
“This thought-provoking, timely and unusual book blends adventure travel writing and creative non-fiction in a book that's thoughtful and genuine,” stated Banff Mountain Book Competition jury member Harry Vandervlist in a press release. “It’s philosophical out of necessity, because the realities of life, death and the staggering natural world of Antarctica force you to confront big questions. Putting those thoughts into memorable prose that invites re-reading is another matter, and Jean McNeil succeeds brilliantly.”
Ice Diaries was also the winner in the competition's Adventure Travel category.
The winners in the other categories are below:
Mountain Image
Yosemite in the Fifties, Dean Fidelman, Patagonia Books
Mountain Fiction and Poetry
Martin Marten: A Novel, Brian Doyle, Thomas Dunne Vooks & St. Martin's Press
Guidebook
Searching for Superman, Jeff Long, Ascent
Mountaineering History
Rock Queen, Catherine Destivelle, Hayloft Publishing Ltd.
Special Jury Mentions
Across the Arctic Ocean: Original Photographs from the Last Great Polar Journey, Sir Wally Herbert and Huy Lewis-Jones, Thames & Hudson
The Bold and Cold: A History of 25 Classic Climbs in the Canadian Rockies, Brandon Pullan, Rocky Mountain Books Ltd.
For further information please do visit https://www.banffcentre.ca/banff-mountain-book-competition