Literary Awards: The Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction

Nights getting cooler and leaves promising to change colour can only mean one thing: it's literary awards season! For the next few weeks, we will be featuring blog posts on the sales impact of some major national literary awards.

First up: The shortlisted titles for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction were announced today. Congratulations to the shortlisted publishers and authors: 

Tomboy Survival Guide
Ivan Coyote
Arsenal Pulp Press
9781551526560
Birds Art Life
Kyo Maclear
Doubleday Canada
9780385687515
Life on the Ground Floor
Dr. James Maskalyk
Doubleday Canada
9780385665971
All We Leave Behind
Carol Off
Random House Canada
9780345816832
Seven Fallen Feathers
Tanya Talaga
House of Anansi Press
9781487002268

You can see all the books in this BNC CataList catalogue.

The Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize is one of the leading Canadian non-fiction literary prizes. Many of the shortlisted titles go on to be contenders for other Canadian, regional, or international awards such as the RBC Taylor Prize, the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction or the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book. 

Looking for a book to buy your favourite non-fiction reader this holiday season? Look no further than these nominated titles. While a specific increase in sales is difficult to gauge, as many of the books shortlisted for this prize are also shortlisted for or winners of other awards, the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize-winning titles consistently see an increase in sales following the announcement and steady sales right through the holiday period. The 2014 winner, Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything, sold more units than any other winner in the past five years.

The winning books from the last three years are: 

2016 2015 2014
A Disappearance in Damascus
Deborah Campbell
Vintage Canada
9780345809308
Stalin's Daughter
Rosemary Sullivan
HarperCollins
9781443414425
This Changes Everything
Naomi Klein
Vintage Canada
9780307402004

The 2017 winner will be announced on Nov. 14, 2017.