Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

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Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction
Type Literary
Awarded forCanadian nonfiction
Sponsored by Hilary Weston
Viacom (former)
Pearson Canada (former)
Nereus Financial (former)
CountryCanada
Reward(s) CA$60,000 (winner)
CA$5,000 (finalists)
Currently held by Martha Baillie for There Is No Blue

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.

Contents

Sponsorship history

First established in 1997, the award's original corporate sponsor was Viacom. Pearson Canada, the regional branch of 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, [1] when Hilary Weston (a philanthropist and former Lieutenant Governor of Ontario) was announced as the award's new sponsor. [2]

Canada's most lucrative non-fiction prize, the winner receives a cash sum of CA$ 60,000 and all finalists receive CA$ 5,000. [2] [3] Prior to Weston's patronage of the award, the prize would consist CA$ 15,000 for the winner and CA$ 2,000 for the finalists.

Nominees and winners

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction winners and finalists
YearAuthorTitleResultRef.
1997 Ernest Hillen Small Mercies: A Boy After WarWinner [4]
Charlotte Gray Mrs. King: The Life and Times of Isabel Mackenzie King Finalist [5]
John Bentley Mays Power in the Blood: Land, Memory, and a Southern Family
Ruth Teichroeb Flowers on My Grave
Eileen Whitfield Pickford: The Woman Who Made Hollywood
1998 Rudy Wiebe and Yvonne JohnsonStolen Life: The Journey of a Cree WomanWinner [6]
Michael Ignatieff Isaiah Berlin: A LifeFinalist [7]
David Manicom Progeny of Ghosts: Travels in Russia and the Old Empire
Linda Spalding The Follow
Charles WilkinsThe Circus at the Edge of the Earth
1999 Modris Eksteins Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of our CenturyWinner [8]
Robert Bringhurst Story as Sharp as a Knife: The Classical Haida Mythtellers and Their WorldFinalist [9]
Jacalyn Duffin History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction
Moira Farr After Daniel: A Suicide Survivor's Tale
Wayne Johnston Baltimore's Mansion: A Memoir
2000 Erna Paris Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and HistoryWinner [10]
Donald Harman Akenson Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical JesusFinalist [11]
Hugh Brody The Other Side of Eden: Hunters, Farmers and the Shaping of the World
Taras Grescoe Sacré Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec
John Stackhouse Out of Poverty: And into Something More Comfortable
2001 Clark Blaise Time LordWinner [12]
Kevin Major As Near to Heaven by SeaFinalist [13]
Heather Pringle The Mummy Congress
Carol Shields Jane Austen
Jack Todd The Taste of Metal: A Deserter’s Story
2002 Jake MacDonald Houseboat Chronicles: Notes from a Life in Shield CountryWinner [14]
Katherine Ashenburg The Mourner’s Dance: What We Do When People DieFinalist [15]
Andrew ClarkKeen Soldier: The Execution of Second World War Private Harold Pringle
Marni Jackson Pain: The Fifth Vital Sign
Lorie Miseck Promise of Salt
2003 Brian Fawcett Virtual Clearcut, or The Way Things Are in My HometownWinner [16]
Mark Abley Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened LanguagesFinalist [17]
J. Edward Chamberlin If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories? Finding Common Ground
Marq de Villiers and Sheila HirtleSahara: A Natural History
Taras Grescoe The End of Elsewhere: Travels Among the Tourists
2004 Elaine Dewar The Second Tree: Of Clones, Chimeras, and Quests for ImmortalityWinner [18]
Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall Down to This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-City ShantytownFinalist [19]
Trevor Herriot Jacob's Wound: A Search for the Spirit of Wildness
Patrick Lane There is a Season: A Memoir in a Garden
Charles Montgomery The Last Heathen: Encounters With Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia
2005 John Vaillant The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and GreedWinner [20]
Rebecca Godfrey Under the Bridge: The True Story of the Murder of Reena VirkFinalist [21]
Stephen Lewis Race Against Time: Searching for Hope in AIDS-Ravaged Africa
J.B. MacKinnon Dead Man in Paradise
2006 Dragan Todorovic The Book of RevengeWinner [22]
Charlotte Gray Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham BellFinalist [23]
Barbara Kingscote Ride the Rising Wind: One Woman's Journey Across Canada
Noah Richler This is My Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada
Rudy Wiebe Of This Earth: A Mennonite Boyhood in the Boreal Forest
2007 Anna Porter Kasztner's Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the HolocaustWinner [24]
Katherine Ashenburg The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized HistoryFinalist [25]
Tim Bowling The Lost Coast: Salmon, Memory and the Death of Wild Culture
Barry Gough Fortune's a River: The Collision of Empires in Northwest America
Douglas Hunter God's Mercies: Rivalry, Betrayal and the Dream of Discovery
2008 Taras Grescoe Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing SeafoodWinner [26]
Carl Honoré Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-ParentingFinalist [27]
Mark Kingwell Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City
Margaret Visser The Gift of Thanks: The Roots, Persistence and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual
Russell Wangersky Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself
2009 Brian Brett Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural LifeWinner [28]
Wade Davis The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern WorldFinalist [29]
Trevor Herriot Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds
Erika Ritter The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath: Some Paradoxes of Human-Animal Relationships
Eric Siblin The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece
2010 James FitzGerald What Disturbs Our Blood: A Son's Quest to Redeem the PastWinner [30]
Ross King Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of SevenFinalist [31]
Sarah Leavitt Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me
John Theberge and Mary ThebergeThe Ptarmigan's Dilemma: An Exploration into How Life Organizes and Supports Itself
Merrily Weisbord The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das
2011 Charles Foran Mordecai: The Life & TimesWinner [32]
Charlotte Gill Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting TribeFinalist [33]
Richard Gwyn Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891
Grant Lawrence Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nudist Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound
Ray Robertson Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live
2012 Candace Savage A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape Winner [34]
Kamal Al-Solaylee Intolerable: A Memoir of ExtremesFinalist [34]
Modris Eksteins Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age
Taras Grescoe Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile
JJ Lee The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit
2013 Graeme Smith The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in AfghanistanWinner [35]
Thomas King The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North AmericaFinalist [36]
J.B. MacKinnon The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be
Andrew Steinmetz This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla
Priscila Uppal Projection: Encounters with My Runaway Mother
2014 Naomi Klein This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate Winner [37]
Susan Delacourt Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose ThemFinalist [37]
Charles Montgomery Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
Paula Todd Extreme Mean: Trolls, Bullies, and Predators Online
Kathleen Winter Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage
2015 Rosemary Sullivan Stalin's Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana AlliluyevaWinner [38]
Eliott Behar Tell it to the World: International Justice and the Secret Campaign to Hide Mass Murder in KosovoFinalist [39]
Douglas Coupland Kitten Clone: Inside Alcatel-Lucent
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
Lynette Loeppky Cease: A Memoir of Love, Loss and Desire
2016 Deborah Campbell Disappearance in Damascus: A Story of Friendship and Survival in the Shadow of WarWinner [40]
Ian Brown Sixty: A Diary of My Sixty-First Year: The Beginning of the End or the End of the Beginning?Finalist [41]
Matti Friedman Pumpkinflowers: An Israeli Soldier's Story
Ross King Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies
Sonja LarsenRed Star Tattoo: My Life as a Girl Revolutionary
2017 James Maskalyk Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency MedicineWinner [42]
Ivan Coyote Tomboy Survival GuideFinalist [43]
Kyo Maclear Birds Art Life: A Field Guide to the Small and Significant
Carol Off All We Leave Behind: A Reporter's Journey into the Lives of Others
Tanya Talaga Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City
2018 Elizabeth Hay All Things Consoled: A Daughter's MemoirWinner [44]
Will Aitken Antigone Undone: Juliette Binoche, Anne Carson, Ivo Van Hove, and the Art of ResistanceFinalist [45]
Terese Marie Mailhot Heart Berries
Judi Rever In Praise of Blood: The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front
Lindsay Wong The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family
2019 Jenny Heijun Wills Older Sister. Not Necessarily RelatedWinner [46]
Alicia Elliott Mind Spread Out on the GroundFinalist [47]
Anna Mehler Paperny Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person
Tanya Talaga All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward
Ayelet Tsabari The Art of Leaving
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)Finalist [48]
Steven Heighton Reaching Mithymna: Among the Volunteers and Refugees on Lesvos
Tessa McWatt Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging
David Neel The Way Home
2021 Tomson Highway Permanent AstonishmentWinner [49]
Jordan Abel NishgaFinalist [50]
Ken Haigh On Foot to Canterbury
Darrel J. McLeod Peyakow
Ian Williams Disorientation
2022 Dan Werb The Invisible Siege: The Rise of Coronaviruses and the Search for a CureWinner [51]
Geoff Dembicki The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate ChangeFinalist [52]
Tara McGowan-Ross Nothing Will Be Different: A Memoir
Debra Thompson The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging
Joshua Whitehead Making Love with the Land
2023 Christina Sharpe Ordinary NotesWinner [53]
Jamal Saeed My Road from DamascusFinalist [54]
Angela Sterritt Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls
Emily Urquhart Ordinary Wonder Tales
John Vaillant Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World
2024 Martha Baillie There Is No BlueWinner [55]
Chase Joynt Vantage Points: On Media as Trans MemoirFinalist [56]
Amy Lin Here After
Lisa Moore , Jack WhalenInvisible Prisons: Jack Whalen’s Tireless Fight for Justice
Jenny Heijun Wills Everything and Nothing At All
2025 Omar El Akkad One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against ThisShortlist [57]
Tessa McWatt The Snag
Vinh Nguyen The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson Theory of Water
Miriam Toews A Truce That is Not Peace

Weston International Award

In 2023, the Writers' Trust introduced the Weston International Award, a prize which honours international non-fiction writers. Unlike the Canadian award, the international award does not release a list of finalists in advance of the winner announcement, and honours the writer for their overall body of work rather than an individual book.

References

  1. ↑ "Nominees for Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Non-Fiction announced" Archived 2013-01-04 at archive.today . National Post , September 20, 2011.
  2. 1 2 "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.
  3. ↑ M.A. Orthofer, "Writers' Trust of Canada Prize for Non-Fiction " Archived 2011-10-23 at the Wayback Machine , complete review , 26 October 2011.
  4. ↑ "Literary Prizes Awarded". Ottawa Citizen , January 20, 1998.
  5. ↑ "Govier takes Engel prize". The Globe and Mail , November 20, 1997.
  6. ↑ Val Ross, "Writers awarded $10,000 prizes". The Globe and Mail , January 19, 1999.
  7. ↑ "Butala wins Engel prize". The Globe and Mail , November 20, 1998.
  8. ↑ Aida Edamariam, "Toronto historian, Calgary novelist honoured by their peers: Writers' trust awards". National Post , March 30, 2000.
  9. ↑ "Nominations announced". The Globe and Mail , February 9, 2000.
  10. ↑ "Writers' Trust awards named: Prizes mark Canadian achievements". Sudbury Star , March 6, 2001.
  11. ↑ "Finalists named for Writer's Trust prizes". Niagara Falls Review , February 3, 2001.
  12. ↑ Judy Stoffman, "Seven authors win big prizes; Levine, Blaise, Hay among those honoured in T.O.". Toronto Star , March 6, 2002.
  13. ↑ "Double nominations in Writers' Trust awards". The Telegram , February 17, 2002.
  14. ↑ "Manitoulin author among award winners". Sault Star , March 8, 2003.
  15. ↑ "Finalists named for Writers' Trust Awards". The Globe and Mail , February 12, 2003.
  16. ↑ Anne-Marie Tobin, "Writers from across Canada receive literary awards". The Western Star , March 6, 2004.
  17. ↑ Judy Stoffman, "Overlooked books make shortlist". Toronto Star , February 4, 2004.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ "Munro, Newman among finals for literary awards". Peterborough Examiner , February 5, 2005.
  20. ↑ "Joseph Boyden, John Vaillant glean Writers' Trust Awards". Sault Star , March 2, 2006.
  21. ↑ "Crummey in running for national prize". The Telegram , February 3, 2006.
  22. ↑ "N.L. writer's 'Inside' wins fiction prize". Telegraph-Journal , March 8, 2007.
  23. ↑ Pat Donnelly, "Hage, Behrens face off again". Montreal Gazette , February 8, 2007.
  24. ↑ James Adams, "Lawrence Hill, Anna Porter win Writers' Trust Awards". The Globe and Mail , April 2, 2008.
  25. ↑ "Writer's Trust contenders named". Harbour City Star , March 1, 2008.
  26. ↑ 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.
  27. ↑ "Who's in the running for some of this year's big awards". Montreal Gazette , October 25, 2008.
  28. ↑ Mark Medley, "Ontario-born B.C. writer Annabel Lyon wins fiction prize for The Golden Mean". CanWest News Service, November 24, 2009.
  29. ↑ "Munro, Coupland on fiction shortlist for Writer's Trust prizes". Edmonton Journal , October 1, 2009.
  30. ↑ Mark Medley, "Emma Donoghue wins Writers' Trust Fiction Prize". Vancouver Sun , November 3, 2010.
  31. ↑ John Barber, "Emma Donoghue, Kathleen and Michael Winter among finalists for Writers' Trust". The Globe and Mail , September 29, 2010.
  32. ↑ Mark Medley, "Patrick deWitt wins Writers' Trust Fiction Prize". Postmedia News, November 2, 2011.
  33. ↑ 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.
  34. 1 2 Quill, Greg (12 November 2012). "Candace Savage's prairie meditation takes Writers' Trust Nonfiction Prize". Toronto Star . Archived from the original on 11 December 2013.
  35. ↑ Mark Medley, "Afghan war memoir honoured; Smith wins Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction". Vancouver Sun , October 22, 2013.
  36. ↑ Paul Irish, "Writers' Trust releases nonfiction short list: Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian makes list of five". Toronto Star , September 19, 2013.
  37. 1 2 Deborah Dundas, "Naomi Klein wins Hilary Weston prize". Toronto Star , October 15, 2014.
  38. ↑ Medley, Mark (6 October 2015). "Biography of Stalin's daughter wins Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize". The Globe and Mail . Archived from the original on 16 August 2022.
  39. ↑ Robertson, Becky (16 September 2015). "Douglas Coupland, Rosemary Sullivan among Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-fiction finalists". Quill and Quire . Archived from the original on 10 August 2022.
  40. ↑ Bethune, Brian (3 November 2016). "Rogers Writers' Trust: Celebrating the 2016 winners". Maclean's . Archived from the original on 22 October 2022.
  41. ↑ "Ian Brown, Ross King among finalists for Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction". Canadian Press, September 28, 2016.
  42. ↑ Beattie, Steven W. (15 November 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 22 April 2019.
  43. ↑ Medley, Mark (20 September 2017). "Hilary Weston Prize shortlist announced". The Globe and Mail . Archived from the original on 19 March 2022.
  44. ↑ "Kathy Page, Elizabeth Hay among Writers' Trust winners". Toronto Sun , November 8, 2018.
  45. ↑ "Writers' Trust to hand out total $260,000 in prizes for literary excellence". National Post , November 7, 2018.
  46. ↑ Dundas, Deborah (5 November 2019). "Andre Alexis, Jenny Heijun Wills are big winners at Writers' Trust Awards". Toronto Star . Archived from the original on 6 November 2019.
  47. ↑ van Koeverden, Jane (17 September 2019). "Tanya Talaga, Alicia Elliott shortlisted for $60K Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction". CBC Books . Archived from the original on 5 December 2022.
  48. 1 2 Takeuchi, Craig (19 September 2020). "Gil Adamson, Jessica J. Lee win Writers' Trust literary prizes". Now . Archived from the original on 16 January 2022.
  49. ↑ van Koeverden, Jane (3 November 2021). "Katherena Vermette, Tomson Highway and Cherie Dimaline among winners at 2021 Writers' Trust Awards". CBC Books . Archived from the original on 5 November 2021.
  50. ↑ Qiao, Vicky (15 September 2021). "Jordan Abel & Ian Williams among five finalists for $60K Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction". CBC Books . Archived from the original on 10 October 2022.
  51. ↑ Dundas, Deborah (2 November 2022). "Writers' Trust 2022 book award winners collect $270,000 in prizes". Toronto Star . Archived from the original on 3 November 2022.
  52. ↑ "Joshua Whitehead among finalists for $60K Writers' Trust non-fiction prize". Toronto Star . 21 September 2022. Archived from the original on 8 November 2022.
  53. ↑ Nicole Thompson, "Kai Thomas wins Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for debut novel". Toronto Star , November 21, 2023.
  54. ↑ 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.
  55. ↑ "Sheung-King, Martha Baillie among Writers' Trust literary prize winners". CBC Books, November 19, 2017.
  56. ↑ "5 Canadian titles make shortlist for $75K Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction". CBC Books, September 18, 2024.
  57. ↑ "5 Canadian titles make shortlist for $75K Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction". CBC Books, September 12, 2025.
  58. ↑ "British writer Robert Macfarlane wins inaugural $75K Weston International Award". CBC Books, June 22, 2023.
  59. ↑ [https://www.cbc.ca/books/south-asian-writer-pankaj-mishra-wins-2024-75k-weston-international-award-1.7269332 "South Asian writer Pankaj Mishra wins 2024 $75K Weston International Award"}. CBC Books, July 24, 2024.
  60. ↑ Cassandra Drudi, "Leslie Jamison wins 2025 Weston International Award". Quill and Quire , June 18, 2025.
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