Pearson Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize
Encyclopedia
The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction is a Canadian
literary award
, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada
to the best work of non-fiction
by a Canadian writer
.
Canada's richest non-fiction prize, the winner receives a prize of and all finalists receive .
. Pearson Canada, an educational book publishing company, took over the award in 1999, and Nereus Financial, a stock brokerage, became the sponsor from 2006 to 2008. After Nereus dropped its sponsorship, the award had no corporate sponsor until 2011, when philanthropist and former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Hilary Weston
was announced as the award's new sponsor.
Prior to Weston's patronage of the award, the prize was for the winner and for the finalists.
1997 Ernest Hillen, Small Mercies: A Boy After War
1998 Rudy Wiebe
and Yvonne Johnson, Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman
1999 Modris Eksteins
, Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of our Century
2000 Erna Paris
, Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History
2001 Clark Blaise
, Time Lord
2002 Jake MacDonald
, Houseboat Chronicles: Notes from a Life in Shield Country
2003 Brian Fawcett
, Virtual Clearcut, or The Way Things Are in My Hometown
2004 Elaine Dewar, The Second Tree: Of Clones, Chimeras, and Quests for Immortality
2005 John Vaillant
, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed
2006 Dragan Todorovic
, The Book of Revenge
2007 Anna Porter
, Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust
2008 Taras Grescoe
, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
2009 Brian Brett
, Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life
2010 James FitzGerald
, What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past
2011 Charles Foran
, Mordecai: The Life & Times
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
literary award
Literary award
A literary award is an award presented to an author who has written a particularly lauded piece or body of work. There are awards for forms of writing ranging from poetry to novels. Many awards are also dedicated to a certain genre of fiction or non-fiction writing . There are also awards...
, presented annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada
Writers' Trust of Canada
The Writers' Trust of Canada is a non-profit organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers.Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young and Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was registered as a non-profit organization in 1976...
to the best work of non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
by a Canadian writer
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is literature originating from Canada. Collectively it is often called CanLit. Some criticism of Canadian literature has focused on nationalistic and regional themes, although this is only a small portion of Canadian Literary criticism...
.
Canada's richest non-fiction prize, the winner receives a prize of and all finalists receive .
Sponsorship history
First established in 1997, the award's original corporate sponsor was ViacomViacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
. Pearson Canada, an educational book publishing company, took over the award in 1999, and Nereus Financial, a stock brokerage, became the sponsor from 2006 to 2008. After Nereus dropped its sponsorship, the award had no corporate sponsor until 2011, when philanthropist and former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
Lieutenant Governor of Ontario
The Lieutenant Governor of Ontario is the viceregal representative in Ontario of the Canadian monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, who operates distinctly within the province but is also shared equally with the ten other jurisdictions of Canada and resides predominantly in her oldest realm, the United...
Hilary Weston
Hilary Weston
Hilary M. Weston , CM, O.Ont was the 26th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, serving from 1997 to 2002. During her five year tenure, Mrs...
was announced as the award's new sponsor.
Prior to Weston's patronage of the award, the prize was for the winner and for the finalists.
Nominees and winners
Blue Ribbon = winner1997 Ernest Hillen, Small Mercies: A Boy After War
- Charlotte GrayCharlotte Gray (author)Charlotte Gray, CM is a Canadian historian and author.Born in Sheffield, England and educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Gray came to Canada in 1979. She worked for a number of years as a journalist, writing a regular column on national politics for Saturday Night and...
, Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King - John Bentley Mays, Power in the Blood: Land, Memory, and a Southern Family
- Ruth Teichroeb, Flowers on My Grave
- Eileen Whitfield, Pickford: The Woman Who Made HollywoodPickford: The Woman Who Made HollywoodPickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood is a 1997 biography of actress Mary Pickford written by Eileen Whitfield. The acclaimed biography took ten years to complete and was published by Macfarlane Walter & Ross in Canada and by the University Press of Kentucky in the United States...
1998 Rudy Wiebe
Rudy Wiebe
Rudy Henry Wiebe, OC is a Canadian author and professor emeritus in the department of English at the University of Alberta since 1992.-Life:...
and Yvonne Johnson, Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman
- Michael IgnatieffMichael IgnatieffMichael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011...
, Isaiah Berlin: A Life - David ManicomDavid ManicomDavid Alton Manicom is a Canadian diplomat, poet and novelist.Manicom was born in Ingersoll, Ontario and lived there until he attended the University of Toronto and McGill University in Montreal. He has also lived in Aylmer, Quebec, Moscow, Islamabad, Beijing, Geneva, and New Delhi...
, Progeny of Ghosts: Travels in Russia and the Old Empire - Linda SpaldingLinda SpaldingLinda Spalding is a Canadian writer and editor. Born in Topeka, Kansas, the daughter of Jacob Alan Dickinson and Edith Senner, she lived in Mexico and Hawaii before moving to Toronto, Ontario in 1982....
, The Follow - Charles Wilkins, The Circus at the Edge of the Earth
1999 Modris Eksteins
Modris Eksteins
Modris Eksteins is a Canadian historian with a special interest in German history and modern culture. His works include Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age , which won the Ferguson Prize and the Trillium Book Award, and Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe,...
, Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of our Century
- Robert BringhurstRobert BringhurstRobert Bringhurst is a Canadian poet, typographer and author. He is the author of The Elements of Typographic Style – a reference book of typefaces, glyphs and the visual and geometric arrangement of type...
, A Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World - Jacalyn Duffin, History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction
- Moira Farr, After Daniel: A Suicide Survivor’s Tale
- Wayne Johnston, Baltimore’s Mansion: A Memoir
2000 Erna Paris
Erna Paris
Erna Paris is a Canadian non-fiction author born in Toronto, Ontario.After earing a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in Honours Philosophy and English, Paris moved to France for several years, where she continued her studies at the Sorbonne...
, Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History
- Donald Harman Akenson, Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus
- Hugh BrodyHugh BrodyHugh Brody is a British anthropologist, writer, director and lecturer. He was born in 1943 and educated at Trinity College, Oxford. He taught social anthropology at Queen's University, Belfast...
, The Other Side of Eden: Hunters, Farmers and the Shaping of the World - Taras GrescoeTaras GrescoeTaras Grescoe is a Canadian non-fiction writer, who won the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize in 2008 for his book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood...
, Sacré Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec - John StackhouseJohn Stackhouse (Globe and Mail)John Stackhouse is a Canadian journalist and author. He was the editor of the Globe and Mail's Report on Business section and, on May 25, 2009, he was promoted to editor-in-chief of the newspaper....
, Out of Poverty: And into Something More Comfortable
2001 Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise
Clark Blaise, OC is a Canadian author.Born in Fargo, North Dakota, he currently lives in San Francisco, California. He has been married since 1963 to writer Bharati Mukherjee. They have two sons. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, Blaise was also the director of...
, Time Lord
- Kevin MajorKevin MajorKevin Major is a Canadian author who lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador with his wife and two teenage sons. He writes for both young people and adults, including fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry, and plays....
, As Near to Heaven by Sea - Heather PringleHeather PringleHeather Pringle is a prize-winning Canadian non-fiction author and journalist, focusing on archaeology. Her 2006 book The Master Plan detailed Heinrich Himmler's establishment of the Ahnenerbe in a pseudo-scientific attempt to "prove" Aryan superiority. It won the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize...
, The Mummy Congress - Carol ShieldsCarol ShieldsCarol Ann Shields, CC, OM, FRSC, MA was an American-born Canadian author. She is best known for her 1993 novel The Stone Diaries, which won the U.S. Pulitzer Prize for Fiction as well as the Governor General's Award in Canada.-Biography:Shields was born in Oak Park, Illinois...
, Jane Austen - Jack ToddJack ToddJack Todd is a sports columnist for the Montreal Gazette since 1986. Todd was an American citizen who deserted from the U.S. Army to avoid being sent to fight during the Vietnam War...
, The Taste of Metal: A Deserter’s Story
2002 Jake MacDonald
Jake MacDonald
Jake MacDonald is a Canadian author who lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Over twenty-five years he has produced eight books of both fiction and non-fiction and several hundred stories for many of Canada’s leading publications, including the Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, Macleans, Cottage Life,...
, Houseboat Chronicles: Notes from a Life in Shield Country
- Katherine Ashenburg, The Mourner’s Dance: What We Do When People Die
- Andrew Clark, A Keen Soldier: The Execution of Second World War Private Harold Pringle
- Marni Jackson, Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign
- Lorie Miseck, A Promise of Salt
2003 Brian Fawcett
Brian Fawcett
Brian Fawcett is a Canadian writer and cultural analyst who currently lives in Toronto, Ontario.He was born and raised in Prince George, in northwest British Columbia, and graduated from Simon Fraser University as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Before becoming a full time writer, he worked as an urban...
, Virtual Clearcut, or The Way Things Are in My Hometown
- Mark AbleyMark AbleyMark Abley is a Canadian poet, journalist, editor and non-fiction writer.Born in Warwickshire, England, he moved to Canada as a small boy and grew up in Lethbridge, Alberta and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Saskatchewan from which he won a Rhodes Scholarship in 1975. He...
, Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages - J. Edward Chamberlin, If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground
- Taras GrescoeTaras GrescoeTaras Grescoe is a Canadian non-fiction writer, who won the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize in 2008 for his book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood...
, The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists - Marq de VilliersMarq de VilliersMarq de Villiers, CM is an award-winning Canadian writer and journalist. He now chiefly writes non-fiction books on scientific topics. In the past he also worked as a magazine editor and foreign correspondent.-Biography:...
and Sheila Hirtle, Sahara: A Natural History
2004 Elaine Dewar, The Second Tree: Of Clones, Chimeras, and Quests for Immortality
- Shaughnessy Bishop-StallShaughnessy Bishop-StallShaughnessy Bishop-Stall is a Canadian journalist, best known for his 2004 book Down to This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-City Shantytown...
, Down to This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-City Shantytown - Trevor Herriot, Jacob’s Wound: A Search for the Spirit of Wildness
- Patrick LanePatrick LanePatrick Lane is an award-winning Canadian poet. He has written in several other genres, including essays, short stories, and is the author of the novel Red Dog, Red Dog.-Biography:...
, There is a Season: A Memoir in a Garden - Charles MontgomeryCharles MontgomeryCharles Montgomery is an award-winning Canadian writer and photojournalist.Born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, he spent his formative years on a farm on Vancouver Island, and was educated at the University of Victoria and Langara College. Montgomery began his career at the Lillooet Bridge...
, The Last Heathen: Encounters With Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia
2005 John Vaillant
John Vaillant
John Vaillant is a non-fiction author and journalist who was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has lived in Vancouver for the past thirteen years. His first book, The Golden Spruce, won the 2005 Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction and the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize...
, The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed
- Rebecca GodfreyRebecca GodfreyRebecca Godfrey is a novelist and non-fiction writer. She is also a writing mentor with the Creative Nonfiction mentoring program.She was born in Toronto, Ontario, to writers Dave Godfrey and Ellen Godfrey. As a child her family relocated to Victoria, British Columbia...
, Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk - Stephen LewisStephen LewisStephen Henry Lewis, is a Canadian politician, broadcaster and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s. During many of the those years as leader, his father David Lewis was simultaneously the leader of the Federal New Democratic Party...
, Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa - J.B. MacKinnonJ.B. MacKinnonJames Bernard MacKinnon, commonly cited as J.B. MacKinnon, is a Canadian independent journalist, contributing editor and book author. Mackinnon is best known for co-authoring with Alisa Smith the bestselling book The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local Eating, encouraging readers to focus on local...
, Dead Man in Paradise
2006 Dragan Todorovic
Dragan Todorovic
Not to be confused with Dragan Todorović, Serbian politician.Dragan Todorović is a writer and multimedia artist...
, The Book of Revenge
- Charlotte GrayCharlotte Gray (author)Charlotte Gray, CM is a Canadian historian and author.Born in Sheffield, England and educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, Gray came to Canada in 1979. She worked for a number of years as a journalist, writing a regular column on national politics for Saturday Night and...
, Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell - Barbara Kingscote, Ride the Rising Wind: One Woman’s Journey Across Canada
- Noah RichlerNoah RichlerNoah Richler is a Canadian journalist, who was raised in Montreal, Canada and London, England. He is the son of Florence Isabel Wood and famous Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler...
, This is My Country, What’s Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada - Rudy WiebeRudy WiebeRudy Henry Wiebe, OC is a Canadian author and professor emeritus in the department of English at the University of Alberta since 1992.-Life:...
, Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest
2007 Anna Porter
Anna Porter
Anna Maria Porter, OC, O.Ont is a Canadian publisher and novelist.Born Anna Szigethy in Budapest, she emigrated to New Zealand in 1956 to escape the Soviet presence in Hungary. She received a Bachelor degree and Master of Arts degree from the University of Canterbury. She started at McClelland &...
, Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust
- Katherine Ashenburg, The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History
- Tim BowlingTim BowlingTim Bowling is a Canadian poet. He spent his youth in Ladner, British Columbia, and now lives in Edmonton, Alberta...
, The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture - Barry Gough, Fortune’s a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America
- Douglas Hunter, God’s Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery
2008 Taras Grescoe
Taras Grescoe
Taras Grescoe is a Canadian non-fiction writer, who won the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize in 2008 for his book Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood...
, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
- Carl HonoréCarl HonoréCarl Honoré is a Canadian journalist who wrote the internationally best-selling book In Praise of Slowness: How A Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed about the Slow Movement....
, Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting - Mark KingwellMark KingwellMark Gerald Kingwell, M.Litt, M.Phil, PhD, D.F.A. is a Canadian professor of philosophy and associate chair at the University of Toronto's Department of Philosophy. Kingwell is a fellow of Trinity College...
, Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City - Margaret VisserMargaret VisserMargaret Visser is a writer and broadcaster who lives in Toronto, Paris, and South West France. Her subject matter is the history, anthropology, and mythology of everyday life....
, The Gift of Thanks: The Roots, Persistence and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual - Russell WangerskyRussell WangerskyRussell Wangersky is a Canadian journalist and short story writer. Born in New Haven, Connecticut and raised in Canada since the age of 3, Wangersky was educated at Acadia University....
, Burning Down the House: Fighting Fire and Losing Myself
2009 Brian Brett
Brian Brett
Brian Brett is a Canadian poet and novelist.He studied literature at Simon Fraser University from 1969 to 1974...
, Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life
- Wade DavisWade DavisEdmund Wade Davis is a Canadian anthropologist, ethnobotanist, author and photographer whose work has focused on worldwide indigenous cultures, especially in North and South America and particularly involving the traditional uses and beliefs associated with psychoactive plants...
, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World - Trevor Herriot, Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds
- Erika RitterErika RitterErika Ritter is a Canadian playwright and humorist.Born in Regina, Saskatchewan, she studied drama at McGill University and the University of Toronto. In addition to her published work, she has written and hosted programming for CBC Radio...
, The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath: Some Paradoxes of Human-Animal Relationships - Eric Siblin, The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece
2010 James FitzGerald
James FitzGerald (writer)
James FitzGerald is a Canadian writer, who won the 2010 Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize for his book What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past....
, What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past
- Ross KingRoss King (author)Ross King is a Canadian novelist and non-fiction writer. He began his career by writing two works of historical fiction in the 1990s, later turning to non-fiction, and has since written several critically acclaimed and best-selling historical works.-Novels and Books:King's first novel, Domino, ,...
, Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven - Sarah Leavitt, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me
- John Theberge and Mary Theberge, The Ptarmigan's Dilemma: An Exploration into How Life Organizes and Supports Itself
- Merrily WeisbordMerrily WeisbordMerrily Weisbord is a Canadian non-fiction writer, best known for her 2010 book The Love Queen of Malabar, a memoir of her longtime friendship with the late Indian writer Kamala Das...
, The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das
2011 Charles Foran
Charles Foran
Charles Foran is a Canadian novelist and non-fiction writer living in Peterborough, Ontario.-Biography:Foran was born in August 1960 in Toronto to a Franco-Ontarian mother and a father from an Ottawa Irish family. He attended Catholic elementary school and Brebeuf College School, a Jesuit high...
, Mordecai: The Life & Times
- Charlotte Gill, Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe
- Richard GwynRichard GwynRichard John Philip Jermy Gwyn, is a Canadian civil servant, journalist and author.-Early life:Richard Gwyn was born on May 26, 1934, in Bury St. Edmunds, England, and was the second son to his parents Brigadier Philip Eustace Congreve Jermy-Gwyn, an Indian Army officer, and Elizabeth Edith...
, Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891 - Grant LawrenceGrant LawrenceGrant Lawrence is a veteran Canadian radio personality and writer based in Vancouver. He is a host on CBC Radio 3, a Sirius Satellite Radio channel which emphasizes new independent Canadian music, and is also the vocalist for the indie rock group The Smugglers.In addition to his regular shifts on...
, Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nudist Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound - Ray RobertsonRay RobertsonRay Robertson is a Canadian novelist and a contributing book reviewer at The Globe and Mail.-Novels:*Home Movies. Cormorant Books, 1997.*Heroes. Dundurn, 2000....
, Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live