Canada's Most Prestigious Prize for Literary Non-Fiction gathers industry for important announcement

Jury will choose up to five books from its longlist

The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation request the media to attend a conference to announce the finalists for the 2016 RBC Taylor Prize. The 30-minute press conference will take place Wednesday, January 10, 2018 10 a.m. sharp  in the Consort Bar (Main Level) of The Omni King Edward Hotel, 37 King Street East Toronto, ON M5C 1E9.

There will be up to five authors/books on this year's shortlist. There will be up to five authors/books on this year's shortlist, which the jury will select from the 10 longlisted books announced in early December 2017. 

Who: Noreen Taylor, chair of the Charles Taylor Foundation and Prize founder
Presenting Sponsor Vijay Parmar, president of RBC PH&N Investment Counsel, 
RBC Taylor Prize 2018 Jurors Christine Elliott, Anne Giardini, and James Polk
What: RBC Taylor Prize Shortlist Announcement Event
Why: To hear the names of the shortlist authors/books and celebrate all 10 books on the RBC Taylor Prize longlist
When: Wednesday, January 10, 2018 at 10:00 am sharp
Where: The Omni King Edward Hotel, Main Level Consort Bar, 37 King Street East, downtown Toronto

The longlist Books for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize are:

1. Island of the Blue Foxes: Disaster and Triumph on Bering's Great Voyage to Alaska by Stephen R. Bown (Canmore, AB), published by Douglas & McIntyre
2. How to Fall in Love with Anyone by Mandy Len Catron (Vancouver, BC), published by Simon & Schuster
3. Yardwork: A Biography of an Urban Place by Daniel Coleman (Hamilton, ON), published by Wolsak and Wynn Publishers
4. The Marriott Cell: An Epic Journey from Cairo's Scorpion Prison to Freedom by Mohamed Fahmy (Vancouver, BC) and Carol Shaben (Vancouver, BC), published by Random House Canada
5. Solitude: A Singular Life in a Crowded World by Michael Harris (Vancouver, BC), published by Doubleday Canada
6. Life on the Ground Floor: Letters From the Edge of Emergency Medicine by James Maskalyk (Toronto, ON), published by Doubleday Canada
7. A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land by Adam Shoalts (Hamilton, ON), published by Allen Lane Canada / Penguin Random House Canada
8. Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City, by Tanya Talaga (Toronto, ON), published by House of Anansi Press
9. In the Name of Humanity by Max Wallace (Toronto, ON), published by Allen Lane Canada / Penguin Random House Canada
10. Apron Strings: Navigating Food and Family in France, Italy, and China by Jan Wong (Fredericton, NB), published by Goose Lane Edition

 The RBC Taylor Prize recognizes excellence in Canadian non-fiction writing and emphasizes the development of the careers of the authors it celebrates. The RBC Taylor Prize Shortlist will be announced at a news conference on Wednesday, January 10, 2018, and the winner revealed at a gala luncheon on Monday February 26, 2018.

Canada’s Most Prestigious Non-Fiction Award Has A New Jury

RBC Taylor Prize Announces New Jury for 2018

The Trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are pleased to announce that the jurors for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize are: Christine Elliott, Anne Giardini, and James Polk.

Christine Elliott

Christine Elliott is Ontario’s first-ever Patient Ombudsman and has been an advocate for vulnerable people for many years. Ms. Elliott has served as a volunteer with numerous community organizations, including the Grandview Children’s Centre and Durham Mental Health Services. A lawyer by profession, she was also a longtime Progressive Conservative MPP (2006 to 2015) representing her home riding of Whitby-Oshawa.

Anne Giardini

Anne Giardini, O.C., Q.C., is an author, board director and the 11^th Chancellor of Simon Fraser University. She has published two novels, The Sad Truth About Happiness and Advice for Italian Boys. In 2016, together with her son Nicholas, Anne Giardini published Startle and Illuminate, a book of writing advice from her mother, the late Canadian author Carol Shields. Giardini has been Chair of the Vancouver International Writers Festival, and a board member of the Writers’ Trust of Canada and PEN Canada.

James Polk

James Polk was the long time editorial director of House of Anansi Press and edited two books by Charles Taylor, as well as work by Margaret Atwood, George Grant, Northrop Frye, and many others. With a literature PhD he has taught at Harvard, Idaho, Ryerson and Alberta, and has written a comic novel, a stage comedy about Canadian publishing, articles, short stories, and criticism about Canadian writers and writing. As an advisor at the Ontario Ministry of Culture, he worked on grants for theatre and books, developed a tax credit for publishers and remodelled the Trillium Book Prize to include Franco Ontarian writing. He lives in Toronto and, trained as a pianist, still practices daily, playing classics and show-tunes in seclusion.

Noreen Taylor, Prize Founder and Chair of the Charles Taylor Foundation, remarked: “Literary non-fiction is the best medium for our nation’s top authors to examine the world beyond the recording of facts and a parade of data. Our esteemed jury will read through 150+ entries and rigorously debate titles to be included on the prize longlist announced in December. Readers across the country look forward with great anticipation to the jury’s selections for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize.”

Key Dates: The Longlist will be shared on Wednesday, December 6, 2017; the Shortlist will be announced at a news conference on Wednesday, January 10, 2018; and the winner revealed at a gala luncheon on Monday February 26, 2018.

The RBC Taylor Prize recognizes excellence in Canadian non-fiction writing and emphasizes the development of the careers of the authors it celebrates.

About The RBC Taylor Prize:

Established in 1998 by the trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation and first awarded in 2000, 2018 marks the seventeenth awarding of the RBC Taylor Prize, which commemorates Charles Taylor’s pursuit of excellence in the field of literary non-fiction. Awarded to the author whose book best combines a superb command of the English language, an elegance of style, and a subtlety of thought and perception, the Prize consists of $30,000 for the winner and $5,000 for each of the remaining finalists. All authors are presented with a custom leather bound version of their shortlisted book at the awards ceremony.

The Prize provides all of the finalists with promotional support to help all of the nominated books to stand out in the media, bookstores, and libraries.

Earlier this year, Ross King won the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize for his book Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Liliespublished by Bond Street Books.

Mr. King selected Cassi Smith as the 2017 recipient of the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award. This award featuring a $10,000 cash award, and mentorship from the naming author was established in 2013 to provide recognition and assistance to a Canadian published author who is working on a significant writing project in literary non-fiction. Ms. Smith, a Saskatchewan based graduate student, is working on a collection of non-fiction short stories based on her interviews with Saskatchewan’s First Nations Elders.

The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are: Michael Bradley, Vijay Parmar, David Staines, Edward Taylor, Nadina Taylor, and Noreen Taylor. The Executive Director is Su Hutchinson.

The presenting sponsor of the RBC Taylor Prize is RBC Wealth Management. Its media sponsors are The Globe and Mail, Cision, The Huffington Post Canada, Maclean’s magazine, Quill & Quire magazine; its in-kind sponsors are Ben McNally Books, Event Source, IFOA, The Omni King Edward Hotel, and the Toronto Public Library Board.

To download high-resolution images of the trustees and the jury

please go to: www.rbctaylorprize.ca/2018/2018_trustees_and_jury.zip

For general information about the Prize please go to: www.rbctaylorprize.ca.

Follow the RBC Taylor Prize on Twitter at www.twitter.com/taylorprize

Follow the RBC Taylor Prize on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RBCTaylorPrize

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For further information:

Media contact: Stephen Weir & Associates

Stephen Weir: 416-489-5868 | cell: 416-801-3101 | stephen@stephenweir.com