Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Winners. Shortlists.

2008 Winner | 2008 Shortlist | Winners 1997 - 2007

The Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize
Winner: $15,000; Finalists: $2,000

The Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize is given for a work of non-fiction that, in the opinion of the judges, demonstrates the highest literary merit.

2008 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize Winner

Taras Grescoe (Montreal) for Bottomfeeder:How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, published by HarperCollins Canada

2008 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize Other Shortlisted
Jury: Derek Lundy (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia), Darren Wershler-Henry (Toronto), and Jan
Wong (Toronto)

Each finalist for this prize receives $3,500.
• Carl Honoré (London, United Kingdom) for Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting, published by Knopf Canada
• Mark Kingwell (Toronto) for Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City, published by Viking Canada
• Margaret Visser (Toronto) for The Gift of Thanks:The Roots, Persistence and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual, published by HarperCollins Canada
• Russel Wangersky (St. John’s) for Burning Down the House: Fighting Fire and Losing Myself, published by Thomas Allen Publishers

Buy from Abe Books Canada back to top		2008 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize Winner Taras Grescoe (Montreal) for Bottomfeeder:How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood, published by HarperCollins Canada Taras Grescoe has gone fishing in the world's oceans and rivers, and he's caught a big one - several of them in fact. In his epicurean and ethically driven quest for the perfect seafood dish, Grescoe nets some shocking discoveries about the fish we eat, where they come from and the often slimy inner workings of the multi-billion dollar industry that depends on them. Bottomfeeder is designed, menu-style, as an account of Grescoe's globe-trotting, seafood-eating journey. He takes us from the familiar - a deep-fried visit to a Red Lobster franchise in North Carolina, where he chows down on popcorn-battered shrimp laced with chemicals, imported as local Gulf shrimp trawlers sat idle - to the foreign, such as a stay in Kochi, India, where Grescoe discovers how the curry-simmered fish and prawns he is enjoying have actually contributed to unprecedented ecological and social devastation, including playing a role in the 2005 tsunami disaster. Along the way, in a fork-to-fishing-line discourse, he tours the world's largest fish market with a marine biologist, takes celebrity chefs to task for putting threatened species on the menu and partakes in a few once-in-a-lifetime meals guaranteed to shock - and even kill - the palate. Much more than a screed against an often slippery fishing industry, however, Bottomfeeder is a food lover's highly entertaining and provocative delight, written by an intrepid adventurer who loves to dish on what's delicious, exciting and ethically digestible Amazon.ca \| Abe Books Canada \| Chapters.Indigo.ca \|Amazon.com \| Barnes & Noble \| Powells books \| Indies \| Alibris \| amazon uk \|blackwell uk\| books direct uk\| borders uk Foyles \|qbd books au \| seek books au \| fishpond nz\| the nile Books nz \| kalahari.net SA \| amazon france \|

Buy from Abe Books Canada back to top		2008 Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize Other Shortlisted Carl Honoré (London, United Kingdom) for Under Pressure: Rescuing Childhood from the Culture of Hyper-Parenting, published by Knopf Canada From the bestselling author of In Praise of Slow comes a fascinating and urgent look at childhood today and how we are raising a generation of overprogrammed, overachieving, exhausted children. For generations of children, growing up was a pretty simple business: you went to school for a few hours a day, you dabbled in hobbies and sports, and the rest of the time you played. Or maybe you just day-dreamed. Carl Honoré explains how our modern approach to children is backfiring: our kids are fatter, more myopic, more injured, more depressed and more medicated than any previous generation. By using children as a way to relive our own lives, or as a way to make up for our personal shortcomings, we have destroyed the magic and innocence of childhood. Under Pressure is not a parenting manual but a call to action; we must do better for our children. Using fascinating anecdotes about obsessive parents (including one about the father of a tennis player who drugged all his child’s opponents), solid research and personal insight, Honoré explains the over-parenting phenomenon, dispels myths and rallies for change in clear and persuasive prose. Topics explored include the use of technology as babysitting, how enrolling children in hours of extracurriculars every week can do more harm than good and how we underestimate the resilience of our children at the expense of their freedom. Amazon.ca \| Abe Books Canada \| Chapters.Indigo.ca \|Amazon.com \| Barnes & Noble \| Powells books \| Indies \| Alibris \| amazon uk \|blackwell uk\| books direct uk\| borders uk Foyles \|qbd books au \| seek books au \| fishpond nz\| the nile Books nz \| kalahari.net SA \| amazon france \|

Buy from Abe Books Canada back to top		Mark Kingwell (Toronto) for Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City, published by Viking Canada Book Description In Concrete Reveries, acclaimed philosopher and cultural critic Mark Kingwell offers a thoughtful answer to Socrates' injunction about the life worth living, using the urban experience to illustrate the dynamic between concreteness and abstraction that operates within us.Witty and authoritative, the book is an exhilarating journey through unexpected terrain. About the Author Mark Kingwell is professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine, and the author of 10 books. He lectures frequently about design and architecture to academic and popular audiences throughout the world. Amazon.ca \| Abe Books Canada \| Chapters.Indigo.ca \|Amazon.com \| Barnes & Noble \| Powells books \| Indies \| Alibris \| amazon uk \|blackwell uk\| books direct uk\| borders uk Foyles \|qbd books au \| seek books au \| fishpond nz\| the nile Books nz \| kalahari.net SA \| amazon france \|

Buy from Abe Books Canada		Margaret Visser (Toronto) for The Gift of Thanks:The Roots, Persistence and Paradoxical Meanings of a Social Ritual, published by HarperCollins Canada Margaret Visser is an original, one of the first writers to establish the art of narrative non-fiction in Canada. Her bestselling books, including The Rituals of Dinner and The Geometry of Love, masterfully explore the anthropology of everyday life, opening up the interconnected world that we otherwise might not see. In The Gift of Thanks, Visser turns her keen eye and far-ranging scholarship to the act of gratitude, embodied in the deceptively simple phrase "thank you." Those two words become a springboard for a fascinating inquiry into all aspects of gratitude, from how and why children are taught to give thanks, to the difference between speaking the words and feeling them. She examines the ways in which being grateful is understood in different cultures and how acts of reciprocation or rejection are treated in folklore, mythology and fiction. Thankfulness, when properly understood, is a choice and a source of happiness that can be cultivated. In Margaret Visser's hands, gratitude becomes a key to understanding the assumptions, hopes, preferences and fears that underlie everyday behaviour. She demonstrates that the North American habit of offering thanks to virtually anyone in almost any situation can be baffling--and even offensive--to someone with different cultural expectations. Reflecting on North American customs, she argues that our own notions of gratitude influence a wide range of traditions, such as the wrapping of gifts, the ritual of Remembrance Day ceremonies and even the exchange of compliments. With every page, The Gift of Thanks reveals a new and unexpected truth to ponder. Visser's extraordinary insights into gratefulness will leave you Amazon.ca \| Abe Books Canada \| Chapters.Indigo.ca \|Amazon.com \| Barnes & Noble \| Powells books \| Indies \| Alibris \| amazon uk \|blackwell uk\| books direct uk\| borders uk Foyles \|qbd books au \| seek books au \| fishpond nz\| the nile Books nz \| kalahari.net SA \| amazon france \|

Buy from Abe Books Canada		Russel Wangersky (St. John’s) for Burning Down the House: Fighting Fire and Losing Myself, published by Thomas Allen Publishers Thousands of boys dream of become firefighters. Some get the chance, and for some of those, the dream becomes a nightmare. "Burning Down the House" is the story of Wangersky’s eight-year career as a volunteer firefighter, an experience that wound up reaching into every facet of his life and changed the way he saw the world forever. Written in vibrant, luminous prose, the book traces his years from rookie to veteran firefighter and the toll it took on his personal life. Offering a rare glimpse into physical dangers and psychological costs of trying to save strangers’ lives, Wangersky paints a harrowing and sometimes heartbreakingly vivid portrait of the fires, medical calls and automobile accidents that are the standard fare of the profession. Visceral and affecting, "Burning Down the House" is an insightful insider’s account of the perilous world of firefighting and an unforgettable memoir of how, in finding his passion, Wangersky lost himself Amazon.ca \| Abe Books Canada \| Chapters.Indigo.ca \|Amazon.com \| Barnes & Noble \| Powells books \| Indies \| Alibris \| amazon uk \|blackwell uk\| books direct uk\| borders uk Foyles \|qbd books au \| seek books au \| fishpond nz\| the nile Books nz \| kalahari.net SA \| amazon france \|

Previous Winners

2007 Anna Porter for Kasztner’s Train: The True Story of Rezso Kasztner, Unknown Hero of the Holocaust
2006 Dragan Todorovic for The Book of Revenge
2005 John Vaillant for The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness and Greed
2004 Elaine Dewar for The Second Tree: Of Clones, Chimeras, and Quests for Immortality
2003 Brian Fawcett for Virtual Clearcut or, the Way Things Are in My Hometown
2002 Jake MacDonald for Houseboat Chronicles: Notes from a Life in Shield Country
2001 Clark Blaise for Time Lord
2000 Erna Paris for Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History
1999 Modris Eksteins for Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II and the Heart of our Century
1998 Rudy Wiebe & Yvonne Johnson for Stolen Life: The Journey of a Cree Woman
1997 Ernest Hillen for Small Mercies: A Boy After War