The Writers' Trust of Canada's
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
Sponsored by CTVglobemedia
Winner: $25,000; Finalists: $2,500

Established in honour of the late, outspoken, and popular MP, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize is administered by The Writers' Trust of Canada and generously sponsored by CTVglobemedia. This award is presented for a non-fiction book that captures a subject of political interest to the Canadian reader and enhances our understanding of the issue. The winning work will combine compelling new insights with depth of research and be of significant literary merit. Strong consideration will be given to books that, in the opinon of the jury, have the potential to shape or influence Canadian political life. The prize is presented at Politics and the Pen in Ottawa in the spring.

2009 Finalists (click on books to read more)

John English, Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000 (Knopf Canada)

Terry Gould, Murder Without Borders: Dying For the Story in the World’s Most Dangerous Places (Random House Canada)

Rudyard Griffiths, Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto (Douglas & McIntyre)

James Maskalyk, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-torn Village (Doubleday Canada)

Daniel Poliquin, René Lévesque (Penguin Canada)

Win a Set of the Finalist Books
To enter send an email here.

Past Recipients

2008 James Orbinski for An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century
2007 Janice Gross Stein & Eugene Lang for
The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar
2006 Max & Monique Nemni (authors), William Johnson (translator) for Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944
2005 Miriam Shuchman for The Drug Trial
2004 Jane Jacobs for Dark Age Ahead
2003 L Gen. Roméo Dallaire for Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
2002 John Duffy for Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership and the Making of Canada
2001 Daniel Poliquin, author, and Don Winkler, translator, for In the Name of the Father: An Essay on Quebec Nationalism
2000 Erna Paris for Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History

Guidelines (click to download PDF) 
Prize history (click to download PDF)