Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Annual Canadian literary prize
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 most lucrative non-fiction prize, the winner receives a prize of CA$ 60,000 and all finalists receive CA$ 5,000.[1] [2]
First established in 1997, the award's original corporate sponsor was Viacom . 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,[3] when philanthropist and former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario Hilary Weston was announced as the award's new sponsor.[1]
Prior to Weston's patronage of the award, the prize was CA$ 15,000 for the winner and CA$ 2,000 for the finalists.
Nominees and winners
Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction winners
Year
Author
Title
Result
Ref.
1997
Ernest Hillen
Small Mercies: A Boy After War
Winner
[4]
Charlotte Gray
Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King
Shortlist
[5]
John Bentley Mays
Power in the Blood: Land, Memory, and a Southern Family
Shortlist
Ruth Teichroeb
Flowers on My Grave
Shortlist
Eileen Whitfield
Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood
Shortlist
1998
Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne Johnson
Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman
Winner
[6]
Michael Ignatieff
Isaiah Berlin: A Life
Shortlist
[7]
David Manicom
Progeny of Ghosts: Travels in Russia and the Old Empire
Shortlist
Linda Spalding
The Follow
Shortlist
Charles Wilkins
The Circus at the Edge of the Earth
Shortlist
1999
Modris Eksteins
Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of our Century
Winner
[8]
Robert Bringhurst
Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their World
Shortlist
[9]
Jacalyn Duffin
History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction
Shortlist
Moira Farr
After Daniel: A Suicide Survivor's Tale
Shortlist
Wayne Johnston
Baltimore's Mansion: A Memoir
Shortlist
2000
Erna Paris
Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History
Winner
[10]
Donald Harman Akenson
Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus
Shortlist
[11]
Hugh Brody
The Other Side of Eden: Hunters, Farmers and the Shaping of the World
Shortlist
Taras Grescoe
Sacré Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec
Shortlist
John Stackhouse
Out of Poverty: And into Something More Comfortable
Shortlist
2001
Clark Blaise
Time Lord
Winner
[12]
Kevin Major
As Near to Heaven by Sea
Shortlist
[13]
Heather Pringle
The Mummy Congress
Shortlist
Carol Shields
Jane Austen
Shortlist
Jack Todd
The Taste of Metal: A Deserter’s Story
Shortlist
2002
Jake MacDonald
Houseboat Chronicles: Notes from a Life in Shield Country
Winner
[14]
Katherine Ashenburg
The Mourner’s Dance: What We Do When People Die
Shortlist
[15]
Andrew Clark
Keen Soldier: The Execution of Second World War Private Harold Pringle
Shortlist
Marni Jackson
Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign
Shortlist
Lorie Miseck
Promise of Salt
Shortlist
2003
Brian Fawcett
Virtual Clearcut, or The Way Things Are in My Hometown
Winner
[16]
Mark Abley
Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages
Shortlist
[17]
J. Edward Chamberlin
If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground
Shortlist
Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
Sahara: A Natural History
Shortlist
Taras Grescoe
The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists
Shortlist
2004
Elaine Dewar
The Second Tree: Of Clones, Chimeras, and Quests for Immortality
Winner
[18]
Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall
Down to This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-City Shantytown
Shortlist
[19]
Trevor Herriot
Jacob's Wound: A Search for the Spirit of Wildness
Shortlist
Patrick Lane
There is a Season: A Memoir in a Garden
Shortlist
Charles Montgomery
The Last Heathen: Encounters With Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia
Shortlist
2005
John Vaillant
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed
Winner
[20]
Rebecca Godfrey
Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena Virk
Shortlist
[21]
Stephen Lewis
Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa
Shortlist
J.B. MacKinnon
Dead Man in Paradise
Shortlist
2006
Dragan Todorovic
The Book of Revenge
Winner
[22]
Charlotte Gray
Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell
Shortlist
[23]
Barbara Kingscote
Ride the Rising Wind: One Woman's Journey Across Canada
Shortlist
Noah Richler
This is My Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada
Shortlist
Rudy Wiebe
Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest
Shortlist
2007
Anna Porter
Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust
Winner
[24]
Katherine Ashenburg
The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History
Shortlist
[25]
Tim Bowling
The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture
Shortlist
Barry Gough
Fortune's a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America
Shortlist
Douglas Hunter
God's Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery
Shortlist
2008
Taras Grescoe
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood
Winner
[26]
Carl Honoré
Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting
Shortlist
[27]
Mark Kingwell
Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City
Shortlist
Margaret Visser
The Gift of Thanks: The Roots, Persistence and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual
Shortlist
Russell Wangersky
Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself
Shortlist
2009
Brian Brett
Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life
Winner
[28]
Wade Davis
The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World
Shortlist
[29]
Trevor Herriot
Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds
Shortlist
Erika Ritter
The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath: Some Paradoxes of Human-Animal Relationships
Shortlist
Eric Siblin
The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece
Shortlist
2010
James FitzGerald
What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the Past
Winner
[30]
Ross King
Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven
Shortlist
[31]
Sarah Leavitt
Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me
Shortlist
John Theberge and Mary Theberge
The Ptarmigan's Dilemma: An Exploration into How Life Organizes and Supports Itself
Shortlist
Merrily Weisbord
The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das
Shortlist
2011
Charles Foran
Mordecai: The Life & Times
Winner
[32]
Charlotte Gill
Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe
Shortlist
[33]
Richard Gwyn
Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891
Shortlist
Grant Lawrence
Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nudist Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound
Shortlist
Ray Robertson
Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live
Shortlist
2012
Candace Savage
A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape
Winner
[34]
Kamal Al-Solaylee
Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes
Shortlist
[34]
Modris Eksteins
Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age
Shortlist
Taras Grescoe
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile
Shortlist
JJ Lee
The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit
Shortlist
2013
Graeme Smith
The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan
Winner
[35]
Thomas King
The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America
Shortlist
[36]
J.B. MacKinnon
The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
Shortlist
Andrew Steinmetz
This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla
Shortlist
Priscila Uppal
Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother
Shortlist
2014
Naomi Klein
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate
Winner
[37]
Susan Delacourt
Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them
Shortlist
[37]
Charles Montgomery
Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
Shortlist
Paula Todd
Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies, and Predators Online
Shortlist
Kathleen Winter
Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage
Shortlist
2015
Rosemary Sullivan
Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva
Winner
[38]
Eliott Behar
Tell it to the World: International Justice and the Secret Campaign to Hide Mass Murder in Kosovo
Shortlist
[39]
Douglas Coupland
Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent
Shortlist
Dean Jobb
Empire of Deception: From Chicago to Nova Scotia – The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
Shortlist
Lynette Loeppky
Cease: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Desire
Shortlist
2016
Deborah Campbell
Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of War
Winner
[40]
Ian Brown
Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?
Shortlist
[41]
Matti Friedman
Pumpkinflowers: An Israeli Soldier's Story
Shortlist
Ross King
Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies
Shortlist
Sonja Larsen
Red Star Tattoo: My Life as a Girl Revolutionary
Shortlist
2017
James Maskalyk
Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine
Winner
[42]
Ivan Coyote
Tomboy Survival Guide
Shortlist
[43]
Kyo Maclear
Birds Art Life: A Field Guide to the Small and Significant
Shortlist
Carol Off
All We Leave Behind: A Reporter's Journey into the Lives of Others
Shortlist
Tanya Talaga
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City
Shortlist
2018
Elizabeth Hay
All Things Consoled: A Daughter's Memoir
Winner
[44]
Will Aitken
Antigone Undone: Juliette Binoche, Anne Carson, Ivo Van Hove, and the Art of Resistance
Shortlist
[45]
Terese Marie Mailhot
Heart Berries
Shortlist
Judi Rever
In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
Shortlist
Lindsay Wong
The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family
Shortlist
2019
Jenny Heijun Wills
Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related
Winner
[46]
Alicia Elliott
Mind Spread Out on the Ground
Shortlist
[47]
Anna Mehler Paperny
Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person
Shortlist
Tanya Talaga
All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward
Shortlist
Ayelet Tsabari
The Art of Leaving
Shortlist
2020
Jessica J. Lee
Two Trees Make a Forest: Travels Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts in Search of My Family's Past
Winner
[48]
Lorna Crozier
Through the Garden: A Love Story (with Cats)
Shortlist
[48]
Steven Heighton
Reaching Mithymna: Among the Volunteers and Refugees on Lesvos
Shortlist
Tessa McWatt
Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging
Shortlist
David Neel
The Way Home
Shortlist
2021
Tomson Highway
Permanent Astonishment
Winner
[49]
Jordan Abel
Nishga
Shortlist
[50]
Ken Haigh
On Foot to Canterbury
Shortlist
Darrel J. McLeod
Peyakow
Shortlist
Ian Williams
Disorientation
Shortlist
2022
Dan Werb
The Invisible Siege: The Rise of Coronaviruses and the Search for a Cure
Winner
[51]
Geoff Dembicki
The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change
Shortlist
[52]
Tara McGowan-Ross
Nothing Will Be Different: A Memoir
Shortlist
Debra Thompson
The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging
Shortlist
Joshua Whitehead
Making Love with the Land
Shortlist
2023
Christina Sharpe
Ordinary Notes
Winner
[53]
Jamal Saeed
My Road from Damascus
Shortlist
[54]
Angela Sterritt
Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls
Shortlist
Emily Urquhart
Ordinary Wonder Tales
Shortlist
John Vaillant
Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
Shortlist
References
^ a b "Writers' Trust non-fiction prize bumped up to $60,000" Archived 2011-08-11 at the Wayback Machine . The Globe and Mail , May 11, 2011.
^ M.A. Orthofer, "Writers' Trust of Canada Prize for Non-Fiction " Archived 2011-10-23 at the Wayback Machine , complete review , 26 October 2011.
^ "Nominees for Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction announced" Archived 2013-01-04 at archive.today . National Post , September 20, 2011.
^ "Literary Prizes Awarded". Ottawa Citizen , January 20, 1998.
^ "Govier takes Engel prize". The Globe and Mail , November 20, 1997.
^ Val Ross, "Writers awarded $10,000 prizes". The Globe and Mail , January 19, 1999.
^ "Butala wins Engel prize". The Globe and Mail , November 20, 1998.
^ Aida Edamariam, "Toronto historian, Calgary novelist honoured by their peers: Writers' trust awards". National Post , March 30, 2000.
^ "Nominations announced". The Globe and Mail , February 9, 2000.
^ "Writers' Trust awards named: Prizes mark Canadian achievements". Sudbury Star , March 6, 2001.
^ "Finalists named for Writer's Trust prizes". Niagara Falls Review , February 3, 2001.
^ Judy Stoffman, "Seven authors win big prizes ; Levine, Blaise, Hay among those honoured in T.O.". Toronto Star , March 6, 2002.
^ "Double nominations in Writers' Trust awards". The Telegram , February 17, 2002.
^ "Manitoulin author among award winners". Sault Star , March 8, 2003.
^ "Finalists named for Writers' Trust Awards". The Globe and Mail , February 12, 2003.
^ Anne-Marie Tobin, "Writers from across Canada receive literary awards". The Western Star , March 6, 2004.
^ Judy Stoffman, "Overlooked books make shortlist". Toronto Star , February 4, 2004.
^ Judy Stoffman, "Engel 'knocked out' by honour; Sleuth writer cops Matt Cohen prize Seven, in all, feted by Writers Trust". Toronto Star , March 10, 2005.
^ "Munro, Newman among finals for literary awards". Peterborough Examiner , February 5, 2005.
^ "Joseph Boyden, John Vaillant glean Writers' Trust Awards". Sault Star , March 2, 2006.
^ "Crummey in running for national prize". The Telegram , February 3, 2006.
^ "N.L. writer's 'Inside' wins fiction prize". Telegraph-Journal , March 8, 2007.
^ Pat Donnelly, "Hage, Behrens face off again". Montreal Gazette , February 8, 2007.
^ James Adams, "Lawrence Hill, Anna Porter win Writers' Trust Awards". The Globe and Mail , April 2, 2008.
^ "Writer's Trust contenders named". Harbour City Star , March 1, 2008.
^ Mark Medley, "Winnipeg novelist wins Writers' Trust Fiction Prize; Miriam Toews takes $25,000 award for her road-trip story The Flying Troutmans". Winnipeg Free Press , November 18, 2008.
^ "Who's in the running for some of this year's big awards". Montreal Gazette , October 25, 2008.
^ Mark Medley, "Ontario-born B.C. writer Annabel Lyon wins fiction prize for The Golden Mean". CanWest News Service , November 24, 2009.
^ "Munro, Coupland on fiction shortlist for Writer's Trust prizes". Edmonton Journal , October 1, 2009.
^ Mark Medley, "Emma Donoghue wins Writers' Trust Fiction Prize". Vancouver Sun , November 3, 2010.
^ John Barber, "Emma Donoghue, Kathleen and Michael Winter among finalists for Writers' Trust". The Globe and Mail , September 29, 2010.
^ Mark Medley, "Patrick deWitt wins Writers' Trust Fiction Prize". Postmedia News , November 2, 2011.
^ Mark Medley, "Non-fiction award has words from a new sponsor; Finalists revealed; $80,000 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize". National Post , September 21, 2011.
^ a b Quill, Greg (November 12, 2012). "Candace Savage's prairie meditation takes Writers' Trust Nonfiction Prize" . Toronto Star . Archived from the original on December 11, 2013.
^ Mark Medley, "Afghan war memoir honoured; Smith wins Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction". Vancouver Sun , October 22, 2013.
^ Paul Irish, "Writers' Trust releases nonfiction short list: Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian makes list of five". Toronto Star , September 19, 2013.
^ a b Deborah Dundas, "Naomi Klein wins Hilary Weston prize". Toronto Star , October 15, 2014.
^ Medley, Mark (October 6, 2015). "Biography of Stalin's daughter wins Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize" . The Globe and Mail . Archived from the original on August 16, 2022.
^ Robertson, Becky (September 16, 2015). "Douglas Coupland, Rosemary Sullivan among Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-fiction finalists" . Quill and Quire . Archived from the original on August 10, 2022.
^ Bethune, Brian (November 3, 2016). "Rogers Writers' Trust: Celebrating the 2016 winners" . Maclean's . Archived from the original on October 22, 2022.
^ "Ian Brown, Ross King among finalists for Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction". Canadian Press , September 28, 2016.
^ Beattie, Steven W. (November 15, 2017). "David Chariandy, Billie Livingston, and Diane Schoemperlen among the winners at the 2017 Writers' Trust awards" . Quill and Quire . Archived from the original on April 22, 2019.
^ Medley, Mark (September 20, 2017). "Hilary Weston Prize shortlist announced" . The Globe and Mail . Archived from the original on March 19, 2022.
^ "Kathy Page, Elizabeth Hay among Writers' Trust winners". Toronto Sun , November 8, 2018.
^ "Writers' Trust to hand out total $260,000 in prizes for literary excellence". National Post , November 7, 2018.
^ Dundas, Deborah (November 5, 2019). "Andre Alexis, Jenny Heijun Wills are big winners at Writers' Trust Awards" . Toronto Star . Archived from the original on November 6, 2019.
^ van Koeverden, Jane (September 17, 2019). "Tanya Talaga, Alicia Elliott shortlisted for $60K Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction" . CBC Books . Archived from the original on December 5, 2022.
^ a b Takeuchi, Craig (September 19, 2020). "Gil Adamson, Jessica J. Lee win Writers' Trust literary prizes" . Now . Archived from the original on January 16, 2022.
^ van Koeverden, Jane (November 3, 2021). "Katherena Vermette, Tomson Highway and Cherie Dimaline among winners at 2021 Writers' Trust Awards" . CBC Books . Archived from the original on November 5, 2021.
^ Qiao, Vicky (September 15, 2021). "Jordan Abel & Ian Williams among five finalists for $60K Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction" . CBC Books . Archived from the original on October 10, 2022.
^ Dundas, Deborah (November 2, 2022). "Writers' Trust 2022 book award winners collect $270,000 in prizes" . Toronto Star . Archived from the original on November 3, 2022.
^ "Joshua Whitehead among finalists for $60K Writers' Trust non-fiction prize" . Toronto Star . September 21, 2022. Archived from the original on November 8, 2022.
^ Nicole Thompson, "Kai Thomas wins Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for debut novel" . Toronto Star , November 21, 2023.
^ Brad Wheeler, "Shortlist for $75,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction includes past winner John Vaillant, scholar Christina Sharpe" . The Globe and Mail , September 20, 2023.
External links