Recent News

Posted by on Jan 25, 2010 in News | Comments Off on Recent News

Recent News
One of the 2010 PNBA Book Award winners.
One of the 2010 PNBA Book Award winners.
Photo Credit: J. Nisbet

From the Portland Examiner, by Karen Gilb

The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association recently announced the winners of its annual PNBA Book Awards.  This year, Awards Committee members considered more than 200 titles nominated for work published in 2009 by a variety of Pacific NW authors.  The 2010 winners include Jack Nisbet for his book entitled The Collector:  David Douglas and the Natural History of the Northwest.

The Collector tells the story of Scots-born botanist David Douglas who became the “premiere botanical explorer in the Pacific NW and other areas of western North America.”  Douglas undertook his plant-hunting expedition in 1824 on behalf of the Royal Botanic Institution of Glasgow.  His discoveries included a wide variety of western plants–most notably, the Douglas Fir–which were then introduced into English and European markets.

Nisbet’s book takes the reader along on Douglas’ journeys into a strange new world that stretched from Puget Sound to the Sandwich Islands.  “In telling his story, Nisbet evokes a lost world of early exploration, pristine nature, ambition, and cultural and class conflict with surprisingly modern resonances.”

Jack Nisbet is a teacher, naturalist, and writer who lives in Spokane, Washington.  The Collector is his 6th book.  Previous titles include the Murray Morgan Prize-winning book Sources of the River.

The Pacific NW Booksellers Association is a non-profit group of independent bookstores located in five states.  One of their oldest and most popular programs is the annual PNBA Book Awards.  The Awards Committee is made up of nine volunteer booksellers from independent bookstores located throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaha, Montana, and Alaska.