The Writers’ Trust of Canada released its short list for this year’s Hilary Weston Writers Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and Westwood Creative Artists authors were named as four of the five finalists. The prize is awarded for literary excellence in the category of nonfiction, and with $60,000 to be awarded to the winner, it is the richest nonfiction prize in Canada. The winner of the prize will be announced at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Oct. 21.

WCA’s nominated authors are:

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

Graeme Smith for The Dogs are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan (Knopf Canada)

Andrew Steinmetz for This Great Escape: The Case of Michael Paryla (Biblioasis)

Priscila Uppal for Projection: Encounters With My Runaway Mother (Dundurn Press)

For information about the prize, please visit: http://www.writerstrust.com/awards/hilary-weston-writers-trust-prize.aspx

WCA would like to congratulate Carol Shaben on winning the $10,000 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction.

INTO THE ABYSS has had a great run. A #1 Bestseller in Canada, a finalist for the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize, a Barnes & Noble Spring/Summer 2013 Discover Great New Writers pick, an Amazon.com Best Book of the Month (for May 2013), A PW Best New Book for the Week, and an Indie Bestseller, it was also featured as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week.

WCA is happy to report that Thomas King’s The Inconvenient Indian has been chosen as the non-fiction book of the year at the CBA Libris awards.

The CBA Libris Awards are voted on by independent booksellers, recognizing literary achievement and contributions from members of the book industry.

WCA would like to congratulate Bill Gaston and Caroline Adderson for winning 2013 BC Book Prizes. Gaston’s The World took home the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and Adderson’s Middle of Nowhere won the Sheila A. Egoff Children’s Literature Prize.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/winners/2013

The Age of Hope by David Bergen has won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction at the Manitoba Book Awards. The Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award honours books that evoke the special character of and contribute to the appreciation and understanding of the City of Winnipeg. The Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction is awarded to a Manitoba writer whose book is judged the best book of adult fiction published in 2012. Bergen has now won four Margaret Laurence awards and three Carol Shields awards. Congratulations David!

The finalists for the BC Book Prize were announced and they include…

– Bill Gaston’s THE WORLD for Fiction

– Carol Shaben’s INTO THE ABYSS for Non-Fiction

– Caroline Adderson’s MIDDLE OF NOWHERE for Non-Illustrated Children’s Book

– Susin Nielsen’s THE RELUCTANT JOURNAL OF HENRY K. LARSEN for Non-Illustrated Children’s Book

Congratulations everyone!

For more information please visit:

http://www.bcbookprizes.ca/news/article/2013-bc-book-prizes-shortlists-announced/

Westwood Creative Artists is thrilled to announce that Marcello Di Cintio’s Walls: Travels Along the Barricades has won the 2013 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

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.

Below, please find the Jury Citation:

When Ronald Reagan exhorted Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, it was not only a political act. As Marcello Di Cintio discovers, walls divide far more than nations. In this beautifully written reportage, the author brings readers the personal stories – gripping, haunting, humorous, and inspiring – of people living against walls around the world, from the “peaceline” of Belfast to the l’Acadie fence of Montreal.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.writerstrust.com/awards/shaughnessy-cohen-prize-for-political-writing.aspx

Life of Pi was the big winner at the 2013 Academy Awards, picking up 4 Oscars, the most by any film.

Ang Lee’s film adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel captured four Oscars, including the award for best Director, Original  Score, Cinematography and Visual  Effects. It was also nominated for best Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Art Direction, Visual Effects, Sound, Sound Editing, and Original Song.

Congratulations, Yann!

It was announced this morning that Life of Pi, based Yann Martel’s award-winning novel, is a leading contender for the 2013 Academy Awards. The film earned a stunning 11 nominations, including best picture. The full list of nominations follow:

• Best Picture
• Cinematography
• Directing
• Film Editing
• Music (Original Score)
• Music (Original Song)
• Production Design
• Sound Editing
• Sound Mixing
• Visual Effects
• Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

The winners will be announced on Sunday, February 24. For more information, please visit: www.oscars.com

Martel’s 2002 Man Booker Prize winning novel, a #1 international bestseller, has been published in more than 50 territories, sold more than 9 million copies worldwide, and spent more than a year on the New York Times Bestseller list.

The longlisted titles for The 2013 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction have been announced, and WCA is thrilled that five WCA clients are on the list:

The Pursuit of Perfection: the life of Celia Franca by Carol Bishop-Gwyn (Toronto), published by Cormorant Books

Walls: Travels Along the Barricades by Marcello Di Cintio (Calgary), published by Goose Lane Editions

A Season in Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda by Robert Fowler (Ottawa), published by HarperCollins Publishers

Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else by Chrystia Freeland (New York City), published by Doubleday Canada

21st Century by Jeffrey Simpson (Ottawa), published by Allen Lane

The 2013 Taylor Prize shortlist will be announced at an event in Toronto on January 9th and the winner will be announced at a gala luncheon and awards ceremony on March 4th.