Congratulations to Kamal Al-Solaylee, whose book Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone) won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.
The jury, composed of CBC foreign correspondent Nahlah Ayed, National Postcolumnist Colby Cosh, and former Member of Parliament Megan Leslie selected the winner. Their citation reads:
Not black, not white, but brown: how do skin colour and its shades play out in our relationships, our economy, and our politics? Kamal Al-Solaylee’s book dares to propose and define an emerging racial category, drawing on a lifetime’s travel and inquiry to discuss the common experience and the awkward status of the Latin, Asian, and Mediterranean peoples of the fast-rising global south. Thoughtful and refreshing, Brown has a chance to become a made-in-Canada intellectual landmark.