The Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize
Sponsored by Claire Drainie Taylor and Nathan A. (Nat) Taylor
$10,000

The Drainie-Taylor Biography Prize honours the year's best work of biography, autobiography, or personal memoir. Created in 1998, it is named after two significant contributors to Canadian culture and entertainment: the late Nathan A. (Nat) Taylor, entertainment impresario and founder of Cineplex; and John Drainie, the most prominent of Canada's first generation of actors. These two men are linked through the writer and actor Claire Drainie Taylor, who was married to John Drainie from 1942 until his death in 1966, and subsequently married Nat Taylor who died in 2004.

2005 Winner and Finalists

Previous Winners

2005 Nelofer Pazira for A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan
2004 Peter C. Newman for Here Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power
2003 Geoffrey Stevens for The Player: The Life & Times of Dalton Camp
2002 Warren Cariou for Lake of the Prairies: A Story of Belonging
2001 Ken McGoogan for Fatal Passage
2000 Trevor Herriot for River In a Dry Land: A Prairie Passage
1999 Inaugural Recipients: François Ricard, author, & Patricia Claxton, translator, for Gabrielle Roy: A Life

Guidelines (click to download PDF)