Shannon Mendes photo

RECENT AWARDS

2008 National Magazine Award honorable mentions for The Grim Repo and The Archipelago of Fear

2007 Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society: Citation of Merit for Outstanding Contribution Towards Promoting Public Awareness of Climate Change Science.

2006 National Magazine Award Gold for "Into the Megalopolis" in Explore Magazine.

2005 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction for The Last Heathen

2005 Hubert Evans Non-fiction Prize, BC Book Prizes, for

The Last Heathen

2004 Canadian National Magazine Awards Silver for best travel story for "Heaven Can Wait," in Western Living Magazine.

2004 Western Magazine Awards best travel feature for "Heaven Can Wait," in Western Living Magazine.

2003 American Society of Travel Writers Foundation Lowell Thomas Silver Award for Best U.S./Canada Magazine Travel Article for "Storm Coast," in Canadian Geographic.

2003 Canadian Magazine Awards Finalist: Best Sports/Recreation Feature for "The Hounds of Barkerville," in WestWorld.

2003 Canadian Magazine Awards Finalist: Best Travel Feature for "Storm Coast," in Canadian Geographic.

2003 Western Canada Magazine Awards Best Arts and Culture Feature for "Lowry's Ghosts," in Vancouver Magazine.

2002 Western Magazine Awards Gold Award for Best Article: B.C./Yukon for “Psychedelic Renaissance“ in the Georgia Straight Magazine.

2002 Canadian Magazine Awards Finalist: Best Sports/Recreation Feature for “The Blazer,“ text and photos in Western Living Magazine

2001 Western Magazine Awards Best Travel/Leisure Feature for “Coast Rage“ in Vancouver Magazine.

 

bio

Charles Montgomery is a journalist, urbanist, photographer, speaker and advocate for cities and well-being.

He was born in 1968, and spent his formative years in Vancouver and on a farm in North Cowichan, Vancouver Island. He has been a writer and photojournalist since 1996.

His interest in people, science, myth and cities have led Charles to stories in Nunavut, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Thailand, Laos, Hong Kong, Japan, Peru, Fiji, Colombia, Vanuatu, Mexico, France, Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates and the Solomon Islands.

 

Whether covering conflict in the Andean foothills or exploring the mental life of cities, Charles has won accolades for his ambitious reportage, taut storytelling and iconoclastic essays.

His first book, The Last Heathen , Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia , won the 2005 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-fiction. Jurors called it “an irresistible adventure in discovery, a journey into rough terrain and a revelation of the power of ancestral stories across cultural divides." The book has also won the Hubert Evans Prize for Non-fiction and was short-listed for two Writers' Trust of Canada awards. It was published internationally as The Shark God in 2006.

Charles contributed to Way Out There, Explore Magazine's anthology of the best Canadian adventure writing. Since 2001, he has won four Western Magazine Awards, a National Magazine Award and the 2003 American Society of Travel Writer's Lowell Thomas Silver Award for best North American travel story.

Charles splits his time between Mexico City and Vancouver, Canada, where he is a member of the FCC, a collective of literary journalists who use stories about the world to shed light on contemporary issues. He has been influenced by the writing of Malcolm Lowry, Laurens van der Post, Bruce Chatwin and Carlos Fuentes.

 

 

 
 

 

All stories and pictures © Charles Montgomery except where noted.