Four books have been short-listed for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, including memoirs about tree planting and families, and a portrait of a Quebec sanctuary for chimpanzees.
Prince George native Brian Fawcett is on the shortlist for his memoir Human Happiness, about his parents' dysfunctional marriage.
Sunshine Coast-based author Charlotte Gill is short-listed for her memoir Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, about her many years planting trees in Canada.
Primatologist and Toronto-based journalist Andrew Westoll's The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery tells the story of the rescue of chimpanzees from a U.S. biomedical research lab, and the Quebec sanctuary where they found refuge.
And Joel Yanofsky's Bad Animals: A Father's Accidental Education in Autism is a memoir of the Montreal author's struggles to deal with his son's autism.
The books were selected from a field of 134 nominated books. The winner of the $40,000 prize will be announced in February in Vancouver.