At a ceremony today in downtown Toronto, WCA author Thomas King was named the winner of The 2014 RBC Taylor Prize for his book The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, published by Doubleday Canada.

Awarded annually in celebration of Canadian non-fiction, the prize celebrates a book that “best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception.”

The jury citation follows:

“Histories of North America’s Native Peoples abound, but few are as subversive, entertaining, well-researched, hilarious, enraging, and finally as hopeful as this very personal take on our long relationship with the “inconvenient” Indian. King dissects idealized myths (noble Hiawatha, servile Tonto, the Sixties nature guru) against the tragic backdrop of real Indians abused in mission schools, penned together on reserves, and bludgeoned by vicious or ham-fisted government policies. A sharp, informed eye is cast on Riel, Crazy Horse, and Sitting Bull, on the dark and tangled stories of Native land claims, on Alcatraz, Will Rogers (a Cherokee), and the maid on Land o’ Lakes butter; on Batoche, on Wounded Knee. In this thoughtful, irascible account, and in characteristically tricksterish mode, King presents a provocative alternative version of Canada’s heritage narrative.”

Last month, The Inconvenient Indian won the $40,000 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

Please join us in celebrating this very special book and author.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2014/winner_14.asp

Thomas King is represented by Jackie Kaiser.

The finalists were announced for the 26th annual Lambda Literary Awards, which honours LGBT books published in 2013, and WCA is happy to report that Ian Hamilton’s The Wild Beasts of Wuhan: An Ava Lee Novel was on the list. The winners will be announced in New York on June 2.
For more information, please visit:

http://www.lambdaliterary.org/features/news/03/06/26th-annual-lambda-literary-award-finalists-announced/

February 25, 2014

Bruce Westwood is delighted to announce several changes taking place at Westwood Creative Artists.

Jackie Kaiser has been appointed to the position of President and Chief Operating Officer of Westwood Creative Artists, effective immediately. Jackie became a literary agent at Westwood Creative Artists in October 2000 following a decade at Penguin Books where she was Executive Editor. Her instincts, passion, work ethic, and above all her devotion to her writers have led to a distinguished career in Canadian book publishing that spans 30 years. She has spoken about editing, agenting and publishing at the Adelaide Festival of Writers and various universities in Canada. The writers she has nurtured have topped bestseller lists, been published in dozens of countries around the world, and won numerous awards including The Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Trillium Book Prize, the Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Non-fiction, the RBC Taylor Prize, the Edna Staebler Award, and Marian Engel Award, and the BC National Prize for Nonfiction.

Hilary McMahon has been appointed to Executive Vice President of Westwood Creative Artists. Hilary joined Westwood Creative Artists in 1995 after earning a double major in journalism and English and working in public relations and the magazine industry. She spent a number of years as Bruce Westwood’s assistant before taking on her own clients, and was recognized early in her career in Quill & Quire’s “Ones to Watch” feature. She now represents a list of acclaimed, bestselling and prize-winning writers across diverse genres. She is particularly proud of her longstanding relationships with writers who came to her with unsolicited manuscripts, and have now enjoyed significant success in Canada, the US, and abroad. Her sensitivity, tenacity, intelligence and optimism are appreciated by clients, publishers, and colleagues alike. In addition to her responsibilities as an agent, Hilary is in charge of human resources at the agency and enjoys mentoring junior colleagues.

Jackie Kaiser and Hilary McMahon are both shareholders in Westwood Creative Artists.

Westwood Creative Artists was founded in 1995 by Bruce Westwood. With a client roster that boasts more than 400 authors, it is Canada’s largest literary agency, representing award-winning literary fiction, quality commercial fiction including mysteries and thrillers, critically acclaimed non-fiction in the areas of memoir, history, biography, science, journalism and current events, a select range of practical non-fiction, and choice titles for children and young adults.

Bruce Westwood will continue to act as Managing Director and CEO of the agency. Michael A. Levine will continue in his role as Chairman of Westwood Creative Artists.

Congratulations to Thomas King, who has won British Columbia’s National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction for The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America.

The jury, in its citation, called it a “wry, iconoclastic and important book that challenges us to think differently about both the past and the future.”

For more information, please visit:

http://www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction/winner/2014

The five finalists for the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing have been announced, and we are thrilled that WCA authors Margaret MacMillan, Paul Wells and Graeme Smith made the list. The winner will be announced in Ottawa on April 2, 2014, at the Politics and the Pen Gala.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.writerstrust.com/News/News-%281%29/Press-Release-Archive/Press-Releases/Shaughnessy-Cohen-Shortlist-Eng-%28Feb-4-2014%29.aspx

Margaret MacMillan for The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914
Published by Allen Lane Canada

Graeme Smith for The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan,
Published by Knopf Canada

Paul Wells for The Longer I’m Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006
Published by Random House Canada

I’m pleased to announce that the following WCA titles have made the shortlist for the RBC Taylor Prize:

Charlotte Gray’s THE MASSEY MURDER
Thomas King’s THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN
Graeme Smith’s THE DOGS ARE EATING THEM NOW

The RBC Taylor Prize is awarded annually to the author whose book best combines an excellent command of the English language, an elegance of style, quality of thought, and subtlety of perception. The Prize consists of $25,000 for the winning author and $2,000 for each of the runners up.

For more information, please visit:
http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/

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The 2014 shortlist for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction was announced today, and WCA is thrilled to have three authors on the list. The award carries a prize of $40,000.

This year’s finalists include:

Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

Margaret MacMillan’s The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

Graeme Smith’s The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan

For more information, please visit:

http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/

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WCA is thrilled to announce that five WCA authors have been longlsted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. Congratulations to all!

Black Code: Inside the Battle for Cyberspace, Ronald J. Deibert, McClelland & Stewart

The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master, and the Trial that Shocked a Country, Charlotte Gray, HarperCollins Canada

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, Thomas King, Doubleday Canada

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914, Margaret MacMillan, Penguin Canada

The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan, Graeme Smith, Knopf Canada

http://www.bcachievement.com/nonfiction/longlist.php

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Congratulations to Matt James, winner of the 2013 Governor General’s Literary Award (Children’s literature – illustration) for Northwest Passage (Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press).

The jury citiation follows:

Matt James’s unique illustrations set our imaginations soaring as they steer us through Stan Rogers’ famous ballad, Northwest Passage. The ink and acrylic paintings explode with raw effects and vivid colour, sometimes settling to small ice-blue vignettes. Each page is descriptive of the search that obsessed much of the world for hundreds of years.

For more information, please visit:

http://ggbooks.canadacouncil.ca/en/about-apropos/archives/2013/northwest%20passage

I’m pleased to report that Amazon.ca’s Top 100 Editors’ Picks of 2013 include:

Margaret MacMillan’s THE WAR THAT ENDED PEACE
Don Gillmor’s MOUNT PLEASANT
Shyam Selvadurai’s THE HUNGRY GHOSTS
Ann Johnston’s DRINK
Charlotte Gray’s THE MASSEY MURDER

Not to mention appearances in Best Books of the Year: History by:

Stephen J. Harper’s THE GREATEST GAME
Andrew Steinmetz’s THIS GREAT ESCAPE

Congratulations to all!