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Chris
Turner

Chris Turner is one of Canada’s leading voices on climate change solutions and the global energy transition. His book The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands won the National Business Book Award. He was shortlisted for the same prize for The Leap: How to Survive and Thrive in the Sustainable Economy and The Geography of Hope: A Tour of the World We Need. His feature writing has appeared in publications including the Walrus, the New Yorker, and the Guardian, among others, and has earned him ten National Magazine Awards. Turner lives in Calgary.

Award History

2023 Winner

Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
for How to Be a Climate Optimist: Blueprints for a Better World

Jury Citation

“The climate debate is inherently pessimistic, and while Chris Turner doesn’t pretend that crafting policy to slow global warming is easy, he presents a compelling argument: gloom and doom is not an effective strategy. How to Be a Climate Optimist is a self-help guide for the planet and a masterclass in brisk, vivid storytelling. Turner gives us a crisp, upbeat tour d’horizon of gee-whiz innovation coupled with a strongly argued case that we — politicians, voters, and citizens — just need the will to reach for the solutions taking shape before our eyes.”

— 2023 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize Jury (Terri E. Givens, Nik Nanos, and Jacques Poitras)

Program History

Writer in Residence

Berton House Writers’ Residency