The West Coast Book Prize Society has named Betty Keller the recipient of the 12th annual Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence.

The $5,000 prize aims to recognize exceptional B.C. writers who have “contributed to the development of literary excellence in the province.”

Keller is an award-winning author, editor, playwright, teacher, co-founder of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts and its writers-in-residence program, and proud third-generation B.C. resident.

The jury – comprising YA author, children’s librarian, and 2014 Lieutenant Governor’s Award winner Kit Pearson; Vancouver Public Library chief librarian Sandra Singh; and writer and artist Michael Kluckner – says in a press release:

Betty Keller has long been a passionate and versatile contributor to the B.C. writing community. Her fiction, biographies, drama, non-fiction, and articles provide unique perspectives on the province she has lived in all her life … We are delighted to recognize her remarkable literary career and her outstanding community contributions.

B.C. Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon will present the award, along with the other B.C. Book Prizes, at a gala in Vancouver on April 25.