Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction

The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction announced five finalists for the 2011 prize on September 20, 2011.

This is Canada's richest literary prize, with each finalist receiving $5,000, and the winner receiving a total of $60,000.

( all descriptions are from the Writer's Trust of Canada website)

Charles Foran | Mordecai: The Life & Times

"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, 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."

Charlotte Gill | Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe

"Eating Dirt offers a look at tree-planting life with all of its soggy and gritty details. It tells the story of the magical life of the forest as well as the ancient relationship between humans and trees, which are our slowest-growing renewable resource. The book reveals the environmental impact of logging, and also questions the ability of artificially created conifer plantations to replace original forests that evolve over millennia into complex ecosystems."

Richard Gwyn | Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891

"This is the second volume of an award-winning biography of Canada’s first and most important prime minister, the man who made Confederation happen and went on to build this country over the next quarter country. Richard Gwyn discusses in detail how Macdonald dealt with Louis Riel's two rebellions and determinedly pursued the construction of the railroad that would link east to west and thereby help to forge a nation. The book also offers personal glimpses of this very public politician’s life such as his second marriage, the birth of a disabled child, and assassination of a close friend."

Grant Lawrence | Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nudist Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound

"Adventures in Solitude is a memoir of Desolation Sound, a marine provincial park located on the rugged coastline of British Columbia. As a child the author resented spending time in his family’s remote, IKEA-showroom of a cabin. However, upon rediscovering it as an adult he fell in love with the place and its adventure, mystery, and outlandish characters – including a gun-toting cougar lady, left-over hippies, and outlaw bikers. A candid and hilarious account of a unique Canadian location."

Ray Robertson | Why Not?Fifteen Reasons to Live

"The Globe and Mail recently counted Why Not? among the “five Canadian books [that] should be on reading radars everywhere.” Ray Robertson, who suffered a depression of suicidal intensity after completing his sixth novel, explores two of life’s most central questions: What makes human beings happy? What makes a life worth living? In this collection of essays the author’s personal experiences and ideas are interwoven with those of various artists, philosophers, and thinkers"