Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

Part of the Writers' Trust of Canada's suite of literary awards, the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing is described on their website as follows:

Now in its twelfth year, the prize is awarded annually to a non-fiction book that captures a political subject of interest to Canadian readers and enhances our understanding of the issue. The winning work combines compelling new insights with depth of research and is of significant literary merit. Strong consideration is given to books that, in the opinion of the jury, have the potential to shape or influence Canadian political life.

The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing was established in honour of the outspoken and popular Member of Parliament from Windsor, Ontario, who died on December 9, 1998.

This year's winner is...

Walls: travels along the barricades (M)
by Marcello Di Cintio

"In an ambitious blend of travel and reportage, Marcello Di Cintio explores the world’s most disputed edges to meet with those who live alongside the razor wire, concrete, and steel. He visits fenced-in villages in northeast India, walks Arizona’s migrant trails, and travels to Palestinian villages to witness the protests against Israel’s security barrier. From Native American reservations on the US-Mexico border and the “Great Wall of Montreal” to Cyprus’s divided capital and the sectarian divisions of Belfast, Di Cintio seeks to understand what these barriers reveal about their builders and how they influence the cultures they enclose."


Here are the runner-ups:

Straphanger: saving our cities and ourselves from the automobile (M)
by Taras Grescoe

What We Talk About When We Talk About War (M)
by Noah Richler

Chronic Condition: why Canada’s health-care system needs to be dragged into the 21st Century (M)
by Jeffrey Simpson

The Merger Delusion: how swallowing its suburbs made an even bigger mess of Montreal (M)
by Peter F. Trent