The 2025 Banff Mountain Book Competition is now open!
Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival celebrates mountain literature, film, and photography, bringing together filmmakers, writers, publishers, editors, photographers, athletes, adventurers, and - of course - readers. Featuring film screenings, guest speakers, readings, seminars and book signings, the Festival offers a wide spectrum of experiences for the mountain film and book-loving audience.
As a key program of Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival, the Book Competition is an internationally recognized literary competition that celebrates mountain literature in all its forms. Over $29,000 in cash is awarded annually with 8 awards selected by an international jury of writers, adventurers and editors. The short list of category award winners eligible for the Grand Prize is announced in October every year.
In 2025, the book awards will be presented in Banff on Thursday, November 6.
2025 Rules and Regulations
Competition closes July 3, 2025.
Questions? Call the Banff Mountain Book Competition at: 403.762.6347
or email: banffmountainbooks@banffcentre.ca
2024 Banff Mountain Book Competition - Category Finalists
https://www.banffcentre.ca/sites/default/files/2024%20Banff%20Mountain%20Book%20Competition%20Finalists_2.pdfWe are pleased to announce the longlist of category finalists alphabetically by title in each award category.
2024 Banff Mountain Book Competition Category Finalists
Mountain Literature (non-fiction) – The Jon Whyte Award
$3000 - Sponsored by The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies
Alpine Rising: Sherpas, Baltis, and the Triumph of Local Climbers in the Greater Ranges
Bernadette McDonald, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2024)
The Darkest White
Eric Blehm, HarperCollins USA (USA, 2024)
A Fine Line: Searching for Balance Among Mountains
Graham Zimmerman, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2023)
Headstrap: Legends and Lore from the Climbing Sherpas of Darjeeling
Nandini Purandare and Deepa Balsavar, Mountaineers Books (USA, 2024)
A Light through the Cracks: A Climber’s Story
Beth Rodden, Little A (USA, 2024)
Tobin, the Stonemasters, and Me 1970-1980; Remembering Tobin Sorenson, the Best Climber in the World
Rick Accomazzo, Stonemaster Books (USA, 2024)
Mountain Fiction & Poetry
$3000 – Sponsored by the Town of Banff
Dreams of Lost Buttresses and Other Stories
Heather Dawe, Little Peak Press (UK, 2023)
Empty Spaces
Jordan Abel, McClelland & Stewart (Canada, 2023)
Kink Bands
David Martin, NeWest Press (Canada, 2023)
Environmental Literature
$3000 – Sponsored by Lolë
Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet
Ben Goldfarb, W.W. Norton & Company (USA, 2023)
Echo Loba, Loba Echo: Of Wisdom, Wolves and Women
Sonja Swift, Rocky Mountain Books (Canada, 2023)
Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World's Most Vulnerable Places
Christopher Pollon, Greystone Books (Canada, 2023)
Twelve Trees: The Deep Roots of Our Future
Daniel Lewis, Avid Reader Press (USA, 2024)
The Wild Horses of the Chilcotin: Their History and Future
Wayne McCrory, Harbour Publishing (Canada, 2023)
Adventure Travel
$3000 – Sponsored by Rocky Mountain Books
Blood Sweat Tears
Christine Reed, Rugged Outdoorswoman Publishing (USA, 2024)
Move Like Water: My Story of the Sea
Hannah Stowe, Tin House (USA, 2023)
The Two-Headed Whale: Life, Loss, and the Tangled Legacy of Whaling in the Antarctic
Sandy Winterbottom, Greystone Books (Canada, 2023)
Where the Falcon Flies: A 3,400 Kilometre Odyssey From My Doorstep to the Arctic
Adam Shoalts, Allen Lane Canada (Canada, 2023)
Mountain Image
$3000 – Sponsored by Mountain Life
The Art of Climbing
Simon Carter, Thames & Hudson (UK & USA, 2024)
El Arte En El Croquis De Escalada/Art in Climbing Topos
Eli Azurmendi, Rafa Elorza and Juancar Sanz, Expocroquis (Spain, 2023)
Monica Dalmasso: Sauvage!
Monica Dalmasso and Cédric Sapin-Defour, Glénat (France, 2023)
Speaking Stones: Rock Art of Ladakh
Ahtushi Deshpande, Ahtushi Deshpande (India, 2024)
Guidebooks
$3000 – Sponsored by the Association of Canadian Mountain Guides
The 4000m Peaks of the Alps – Selected Alpine Climbs & Ski Mountaineering Routes – Volume 1: West
Ben Tibbetts, Alpenglow Editions (UK, 2024)
Backpacking on Vancouver Island: The Essential Guide to the Best Multi-Day Trips and Day Hikes
Taryn Eyton, Greystone Books (Canada, 2024)
The Cairngorms & North-East Scotland
Iain Young, Anne Butler & Heather Morning, Scottish Mountaineering Club (UK, 2024)
High Sierra Climbing: Technical Rock and Ice Volume 3
Roger Putnam and Vitaliy Musiyenko, Kevin Daniels & Associates (USA, 2024)
Mountain Article
$3000 – Sponsored by The Lodge at Bow Lake
Cayesh '83
Jeff Jackson, Summit Journal (USA, 2024)
Columns and Contradictions
Christopher Kalman, Summit Journal (USA, 2024)
Inseparably Roped: Early Club Culture, Climbing and Books
Zac Robinson, Canadian Alpine Journal (Canada, 2024)
The Terror of Turning a Corner
Astra Lincoln, Climbing Magazine (USA, 2024)
Via Sedna: A Team of Women Sail Stormy Seas to Climb A Big Wall in Greenland
Caro North, Alpinist Magazine (USA, 2024)
Climbing Literature
$3000 - World Expeditions
Books whose primary focus is on climbing from the categories above are eligible for this award. Winner will be announced October 17, 2024.
Grand Prize
$5000 – Sponsored by The Alpine Club of Canada
2024 Banff Mountain Book Competition Jury
Gloria Dickie
Gloria Dickie is the author of Eight Bears (W.W. Norton, 2023), a global exploration of the eight remaining species of bears and the dangers they face. The book was named a ‘best book of the year’ by The New Yorker and The Economist, and shortlisted for the 2023 Banff Mountain Book Awards. She has participated in the Banff Centre’s Mountain & Wilderness Writing Residency and Environmental Reportage Residency in years past, focusing on human-wildlife conflict. Gloria is currently a global climate and environment correspondent at Reuters News Agency, and has reported from more than 20 countries in her career. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Scientific American magazine, Wired magazine, The Guardian and The Walrus. Her favourite wild places include the Arctic, western China, and the Rocky Mountain Front Range. Originally from Canada, she is currently based in London.
Anthony Whittome
Tony was founder faculty with Marni Jackson of the influential Mountain and Wilderness program at Banff Centre back in 2005. A British director of Penguin Random House UK, now retired and working freelance, he has published many award-winning mountaineering, travel and adventure writers, such as Joe Simpson, Stephen Venables, Bernadette McDonald, Jim Perrin and Andy Cave, as well as running his own history, politics, poetry and fiction lists. A keen traveller and (decidedly amateur) former climber, he has walked and cycled on four continents and is the co-editor of the Banff Centre Press publication, Rock, Paper, Fire. He has served on the boards of the Poetry Society and the Poetry Book Society and is currently on the Arts Board of the prison charity Koestler Arts, where he is also a literature judge.
Marni Jackson
Marni Jackson is a Toronto writer who has been proud to work with climbers and aspiring authors during her 20 years on the faculty of the Banff Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program. An award-winning journalist who wrote for Outside magazine when it first launched, Marni’s most recent novel, “Don’t I Know You?” was among CBC’s top twenty books of the year. She also works in theatre and was a co-writer on the documentary film “Al Purdy Was Here”.
Marni is delighted to be back in Banff.
www.marnijackson.com
Book Competition Categories
Prizes will be awarded in each of the following categories:
(Please note: books written primarily for children and young adults are not suitable for this competition.)
Adventure Travel
Non-fiction books with a theme of travel to, and non-motorized exploration of, remote and/or rugged landscapes and their cultures.
Mountain Fiction & Poetry
Fiction and poetry books with a focus on mountain topics. Creative narratives about climbing and mountaineering, exploration and the experiences and cultures of mountain people are accepted.
Guidebook
Non-fiction books dealing with physical activities in mountain environments; including hiking, climbing, mountaineering and "how-to" books.
Mountain Image
Books with a primary focus on mountain images and with text in a complementary role. Images may include photographs or reproductions of artwork.
Mountain Article
Articles or short form essays under 7,000 words with mountain themes including, but not limited to: climbing, adventure, conservation and mountain literature. Articles may be fiction, historical or non-fiction narratives, and can be submitted by either an editor or author of the article. This category accepts articles that have been published in print or digitally.
Environmental Literature
Books that pertain to the environment, specifically related to flora, wildlife, conservation and climate change. Scholastic research and academic papers/texts will not be accepted.
Mountain Literature
Non-fiction books such as memoirs, biographies, and narratives on mountaineering, climbing history, mountain exploration, mountain people and culture, and human experiences of any kind in the mountains and in wilderness areas.
Climbing Literature
All titles that are longlisted and have a theme of climbing are eligible for this award.
Grand Prize
Awarded to a book chosen from the winners in the above categories.
Book Competition Sponsors:
