Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Winner: $60,000; Finalists: $5,000
2012 Prize Key Dates
Five prize finalists will be announced on September 25, 2012, at a press conference in Toronto. The prize winner will be announced at a gala presentation in Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music on November 20, 2012.
2012 Jury
James Bartleman had a distinguished career of more than 35 years in the Canadian Foreign Service serving as a diplomat in Cuba, Israel, South Africa, and elsewhere. In 2002, he became the first aboriginal Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and during his tenure he worked hard to improve literacy amongst First Nations children. Bartleman is the author of four works of nonfiction and a novel, As Long as the Rivers Flow. He lives in Perth, Ontario.
Charlotte Gill is the author of Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, which was a finalist for this prize in 2011. It also won the BC National Award for Canadian Nonfiction and was a finalist for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Nonfiction. Gill is also the author of Ladykiller, a collectionof short fiction that was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. She lives in Powell River, British Columbia.
Marni Jackson has won numerous National Magazine Awards for her journalism. From 2006–2009 she was Rogers Chair of the Literary Journalism program at The Banff Centre, a month-long residency for professional nonfiction writers. She is also on the faculty of the Mountain Writing program at Banff. Jackson is the author of three books of nonfiction, most recently, Home Free: The Myth of the Empty Nest, which was published in 2010. She lives in Toronto.
2011 Prize Winner
Charles Foran | Mordecai: The Life & Times
Knopf Canada
Jury Citation
Charles Foran’s biography, Mordecai: The Life & Times, is an epic work of scholarship and energy, capturing the career and life of the Montreal writer, Mordecai Richler, with a majesty that doesn’t betray the wit and sincerity of Canada’s most famous literary contrarian. Mordecai delivers an authentic portrait of a writer who could be both tragic and gut-busting funny, a loving family man and defender of human rights, who could also snap off barbed quips infuriating both Quebec and anglo nationalists, as well as his fellow writers, and even his own Jewish community in Montreal. To portray this multi-faced life with such amazing ease signals the quality of Mordecai. It’s a big book, inclusive, intelligent, and sometimes sad. Charles Foran never wears his research on his sleeve, easing it near-invisibly into the web of this great life. Mordecai is well written, exciting to read, even-handed, and magisterial.
About the Book
Novelist, satirist, and journalist Mordecai Richler is considered the lion of Canadian literature. In his lifetime he won multiple Governor General's Literary Awards, the Giller Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, as well as many awards for his children’s books. With the support of the Richler family and access to a restricted archive of about 1,000 letters housed at the University of Calgary, Charles Foran has written a biography which offers intimate details about this passionate Canadian and the turbulent times that nurtured him.
About the Author
Charles Foran is the author of ten books, both fiction and nonfiction. His latest, Mordecai, won the 2011 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction and is a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Foran has taught at universities in China, Hong Kong, and Canada, and is a former columnist for the Montreal Gazette. He lives with his family in Peterborough, Ontario.
Video Profile
Click on the covers below to learn more about the four prize finalists.
Charlotte Gill |
Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe
Published by Greystone Books/David Suzuki Foundation
Richard Gwyn | Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891
Published by Random House Canada
Grant Lawrence | Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound
Published by Harbour Publishing
Ray Robertson | Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live
Published by Biblioasis
The prize was awarded in Toronto at Koerner Hall in the Telus Centre for Performance and Learning on October 25.
The winner and finalists were selected by a three-member jury composed of Brian Brett, a writer and farmer from Salt Spring Island, British Columbia; Devyani Saltzman, a writer and curator of literary programming for Toronto’s Luminato Festival; and Russell Wangersky, a writer and editorial-page editor of the St. John’s Telegram.
Teaching Resources
The lessons in these two teaching resources focus on excerpts from the books that were finalists for the 2011 prize and the prize-winning books from 2008, 2009, and 2010. The teaching strategies in each lesson are designed to help students explore those excerpts and appreciate the literary excellence of Canadian writers. The lessons are designed to engage students in critical thinking and inquiry, and are based firmly on Canadian curriculum outcomes and expectations. The resources are free-of-charge and ready-to-go.
To receive free hard copies or for more information, contact Katrina Afonso at 416-504-8222 ext 246 or kafonso@writerstrust.com
About the Honourable Hilary M. Weston, CM, OOnt
Hon. Hilary M. Weston served as the 26th lieutenant-governor of Ontario from 1997 to 2002. As the Queen’s representative in Ontario, Mrs. Weston was responsible for the Crown’s constitutional and representational roles in the province. Since leaving public office, Mrs. Weston has continued to pursue her diverse interests. She led Renaissance ROM, the largest fundraising campaign in Canadian cultural history, transforming the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. She is a trustee of St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and serves on the board of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Mrs. Weston is also a corporate director of Wittington Investments and Selfridges Group Ltd. She has also served as deputy chair of the board of Holt Renfrew, promoting Canadian designers in the retailing business.
Mrs. Weston founded the Ireland Fund of Canada and remains a patron of this non-denominational organization promoting peace in Ireland. Her interests in homes and gardens resulted in the publication of In a Canadian Garden (1989) and At Home in Canada (1995). She served as first chancellor of the Order of Ontario, was appointed a member of the Order of Canada in 2003, and is the recipient of six honorary degrees.
About the Prize
The prize is awarded for literary excellence in the category of nonfiction, which includes, among other forms, personal or journalistic essays, history, biography, memoirs, commentary, and criticism, both social and political. Finalist works will, in the opinion of the jury, demonstrate a distinctive voice, as well as a persuasive and compelling command of tone, narrative, style, and technique. This award succeeds the Writers’ Trust Nonfiction Prize, which was established in 1997.