Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing is a Canadian literary award, presented by the Writers' Trust of Canada to the best nonfiction book on Canadian political and social issues. It has been presented annually in Ottawa at the Writers’ Trust Politics and the Pen gala since 2000,[1] superseding the organization's defunct Gordon Montador Award.

The award had a dollar value in 2015 of CAD25,000.

The prize was established in honour of Shaughnessy Cohen (February 11, 1948 - December 9, 1998), an outspoken and popular Liberal Member of Parliament from Windsor, Ontario who died after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage in the House of Commons of Canada just seconds after standing to address her peers.[1] The award is sponsored by CN.

Submissions

All Canadian-based publishers of original manuscripts may enter two books; companies publishing more than ten eligible nonfiction titles during the 2012 calendar year may add one book for every additional ten eligible books (or fraction thereof) on their nonfiction list, up to a maximum of five. For example, a publisher with a list of 18 qualifying nonfiction books would be entitled to submit three — two for the first ten and one for the next ten.[2]

Jury

A three-person jury selects the winner and finalists of the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. The jury acts independently of the Writers’ Trust and is charged with interpreting the mandate and eligibility criteria of the prize, as well as determining which of the submissions best reflect the prize mandate. In evaluating the writing, literary merit is the sole criteria. Each juror may request an unlimited number of additional titles from the publisher's lists. Such titles are on equal footing with all other submissions, provided that their publishers agree to abide by the conditions laid out in this document. The judgment of the jury in selecting the winners, determining eligibility, and interpreting these rules is final.

Winners and nominees
Year Winner Nominated
2000
Jury: John Crosbie, Ron Graham, Peter Newman		 Erna Paris, Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History
2001
Jury: Maggie Siggins, Pamela Wallin, Hugh Winsor		 Daniel Poliquin, In the Name of the Father: An Essay on Quebec Nationalism (translated by Don Winkler)
2002
Jury: Susan Delacourt, Bob Rae, Janice Gross Stein		 John Duffy, Fights of Our Lives: Elections, Leadership and the Making of Canada
  • Stephen Clarkson, Uncle Sam and Us: Globalization, Neoconservatism, and the Canadian State
  • Colin N. Perkel, Well of Lies: The Walkerton Water Tragedy
  • John Saywell, The Lawmakers: Judicial Power and the Shaping of Canadian Federalism
  • Daniel Stoffman, Who Gets In: What’s Wrong with Canada’s Immigration Program – and How to Fix It
2003
Jury: Clive Doucet, Margaret MacMillan, Peter Mansbridge		 Roméo Dallaire, Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
  • Jane Doe, The Story of Jane Doe
  • Julian Sher and William Marsden, The Road to Hell: How the Biker Gangs Are Conquering Canada
2004
Jury: Pat Carney, Andrew Cohen, Marci McDonald		 Jane Jacobs, Dark Age Ahead
  • Gwynne Dyer, Future: Tense: The Coming World Order
  • Jack Granatstein, Who Killed the Canadian Military?
  • Jennifer Welsh, At Home in the World: Canada’s Global Vision for the 21st Century
  • Rex Weyler, Greenpeace: How a Group of Ecologists, Journalists and Visionaries Changed the World
2005
Jury: Sheila Copps, Bill Fox, Christopher Waddell		 Miriam Shuchman, The Drug Trial: Nancy Olivieri and the Science Scandal that Rocked the Hospital for Sick Children
  • Kim Bolan, Loss of Faith: How the Air-India Bombers Got Away with Murder
  • William Johnson, Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada
  • Amy Knight, How the Cold War Began: The Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies
  • Susanne Reber and Robert Renaud, Starlight Tour: The Last, Lonely Night of Neil Stonechild
2006
Jury: Carol Goar, Arthur Kroeger, Susan Riley		 Max Nemni, Monique Nemni (authors) and William Johnson (trans.), Young Trudeau: Son of Quebec, Father of Canada, 1919-1944
  • John English, Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume 1: 1919-1968
  • Eddie Goldenberg, The Way It Works: Inside Ottawa
  • Allan Gotlieb, The Washington Diaries, 1981-1989
  • Carol Off, Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World’s Most Seductive Sweet
2007
Jury: Robert Bothwell, Lawrence Martin, Brigitte Pellerin		 Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang, The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar
  • Clive Doucet, Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual
  • Richard Gwyn, John A: The Man Who Made Us; The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, Volume One: 1815–1867
  • Andrea Mandel-Campbell, Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson
  • David E. Smith, The People’s House of Commons: Theories of Democracy in Contention
2008
Jury: Chantal Hébert, William Johnson, David Walmsley		 James Orbinski, An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-first Century
  • Daphne Bramham, The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect
  • Erna Paris, The Sun Climbs Slow: Justice in the Age of Imperial America
  • Marie Wadden, Where the Pavement Ends: Canada’s Aboriginal Recovery Movement and the Urgent Need for Reconciliation
  • Chris Wood, Dry Spring: The Coming Water Crisis of North America
2009
Jury: Andrew Nikiforuk, Erna Paris, Michael Petrou		 John English, Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, 1968-2000
  • Terry Gould, Murder Without Borders: Dying for the Story in the World’s Most Dangerous Places
  • Rudyard Griffiths, Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto
  • James Maskalyk, Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village
  • Daniel Poliquin, René Lévesque
2010
Jury: L. Ian MacDonald, Rosemary Spiers, Paul Wells		 Anna Porter, The Ghosts of Europe: Central Europe's Past and Uncertain Future
  • Tim Cook, The Madman and the Butcher: The Sensational Wars of Sam Hughes and General Arthur Currie
  • Shelagh D. Grant, Polar Imperatives: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America
  • Lawrence Martin, Harperland: The Politics of Control
  • Doug Saunders, Arrival City: The Final Migration and our Next World
2011
Jury: David Akin, Charlotte Gray, Janice Gross Stein		 Richard Gwyn, Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times; Volume Two: 1867-1891[3]
  • Ron Graham, The Last Act: Pierre Trudeau, the Gang of Eight, and the Fight for Canada
  • Max Nemni, Monique Nemni (authors) and George Tombs (translator), Trudeau Transformed: The Shaping of a Statesman, 1944-1965
  • Andrew Nikiforuk, Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America’s Great Forests
  • Jacques Poitras, Imaginary Line: Life on an Unfinished Border
2012
Jury: Ed Broadbent, Tasha Kheiriddin, Daniel Poliquin		 Marcello Di Cintio, Walls: Travels Along the Barricades
  • Taras Grescoe, Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile
  • Noah Richler, What We Talk About When We Talk About War
  • Jeffrey Simpson, Chronic Condition: Why Canada’s Health-Care System Needs to be Dragged into the 21st Century
  • Peter Trent, The Merger Delusion: How Swallowing Its Suburbs Made an Even Bigger Mess of Montreal
2013[4]
Jury: Licia Corbella, Jane O'Hara, Doug Saunders		 Paul Wells, The Longer I'm Prime Minister: Stephen Harper and Canada, 2006
2014[5]
Jury: Denise Chong, Terry Glavin, Jane Taber		 Joseph Heath, Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our Economy, and Our Lives
2015[6]
Jury: Tim Cook, Robyn Doolittle, Antonia Maioni		 John Ibbitson, Stephen Harper[7]
  • Greg Donaghy, Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr.
  • Norman Hillmer, O.D. Skelton: A Portrait of Canadian Ambition
  • Andrew Nikiforuk, Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry
  • Sheila Watt-Cloutier, The Right To Be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet
2016[8]
Jury: Nahlah Ayed, Colby Cosh, Megan Leslie.		 Kamal Al-Solaylee, Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (To Everyone)[9]
  • Christie Blatchford, Life Sentence: Stories from Four Decades of Court Reporting — Or, How I Fell Out of Love with the Canadian Justice System (Especially Judges)
  • Ian McKay and Jamie Swift, The Vimy Trap: Or, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Great War
  • James McLeod, Turmoil, as Usual: Politics in Newfoundland and Labrador and the Road to the 2015 Election
  • Noah Richler, The Candidate: Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
2017[10]
Jury: Taiaiake Alfred, Joseph Heath, Kady O'Malley.		 Tanya Talaga, Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City[11]
  • Christopher Dummitt, Unbuttoned: A History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life
  • Carol Off, All We Leave Behind: A Reporter’s Journey into the Lives of Others
  • Sandra Perron, Out Standing in the Field: A Memoir by Canada’s First Female Infantry Officer
  • Ted Rowe, Robert Bond: The Greatest Newfoundlander
2018[12] Rachel Giese, Boys: What It Means to Become a Man[13]
  • Abu Bakr Al-Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung, Homes: A Refugee Story
  • Sarah Cox, Breaching the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand Against Big Hydro
  • Jacques Poitras Pipe Dreams: The Fight for Canada’s Energy Future
  • Harley Rustad, Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees
2019 Beverley McLachlin, Truth Be Told: My Journey Through Life and the Law[14]
  • Adam Chapnick, Canada on the United Nations Security Council: A Small Power on a Large Stage
  • Harold R. Johnson, Peace and Good Order: The Case for Indigenous Justice in Canada
  • Jonathan Manthorpe, Claws of the Panda: Beijing's Campaign of Influence and Intimidation in Canada
  • Kent Roach, Canadian Justice, Indigenous Injustice: The Gerald Stanley and Colten Boushie Case

References
  1. Kate Jaimet, "Spirit of Shaughnessy Cohen lives on at literary dinner on Hill". Ottawa Citizen, May 4, 2000.
  2. "The Writers' Trust of Canada: Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing" 2012.
  3. "Richard Gwyn’s biography of John A. Macdonald wins Cohen prize". The Globe and Mail, April 25, 2012.
  4. "Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing: shortlist announced". Toronto Star, February 4, 3014.
  5. "Shaughnessy Cohen Prize finalists announced". The Globe and Mail, January 27, 2015.
  6. "Awards: Andrew Nikiforuk, Sheila Watt-Cloutier among finalists for 2016 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing". Quill & Quire, March 2, 2016.
  7. "John Ibbitson’s biography of Stephen Harper wins the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing". National Post, April 21, 2016.
  8. "Shaughnessy Cohen book prize shortlist announced". Toronto Star, March 21, 2017.
  9. "Kamal Al-Solaylee wins Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone)". CBC Books, May 11, 2017.
  10. "Breaking down the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize shortlist". The Globe and Mail, May 3, 2018.
  11. "Tanya Talaga wins $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen prize for Seven Fallen Feathers". The Globe and Mail. May 9, 2018. Retrieved August 23, 2018.
  12. "Books about masculinity, energy projects among Shaughnessy Cohen Prize finalists". The Globe and Mail, April 3, 2019.
  13. "Journalist Rachel Giese wins $25,000 Writers’ Trust of Canada award for book on masculinity". National Post, May 16, 2019.
  14. "Beverley McLachlin wins $25K Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for memoir Truth Be Told". CBC Books, September 24, 2020.
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