The finalists for Canada’s biggest nonfiction prize include Transatlantic’s Chase Joynt and Martha Baillie!
The $75,000 award recognizes the best in Canadian nonfiction. It is the largest prize for nonfiction in Canada.
The Writers’ Trust of Canada is an organization that supports Canadian writers through literary awards, fellowships, financial grants, mentorships and more. It also gives out 11 prizes in recognition of the year’s best in fiction, nonfiction and short story, as well as mid-career and lifetime achievement awards.
The Writers’ Trust has given out a nonfiction prize since 1997. Hilary Weston has sponsored the prize since 2011. As of 2023, the prize has increased to $75,000. Each remaining finalist will receive $5,000.
The winners will be announced at the Writers’ Trust awards gala on Nov. 19, 2024.
When writer and filmmaker Chase Joynt discovers his connection to media figure Marshall McLuhan by way of old family documents, he finds himself exploring a difficult past and contextualizing those experiences with other sources, media and stories. Vantage Points shows how masculinity and media impacts the stories we tell and reveals surprising connections.
“A remarkable nonfiction kaleidoscope,” said the jury in a press statement. “Vantage Points grapples with the long shadows cast by masculinity, heteronormativity and abuse.”
Joynt is a Canadian director and writer. His most recent film, Framing Agnes, won the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. His book You Only Live Twice, co-written with Mike Hoolboom was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award.
There Is No Blue is a memoir featuring three essays about significant losses Martha Baillie experienced. It’s a response to the death of her mother, father and sister along as ruminations on what made them so alive.
“An elegy to the beautiful fight to keep a family together and an ode to the devastating loss when things fall apart,” said the jury in a press statement.
Baillie is a Toronto-based author. Her novel The Incident Report was on the 2009 Giller Prize longlist and was adapted into a feature film called Darkest Miriam. Her other books include Sister Language and The Search for Heinrich Schlögel.
Both Chase and Martha are represented by Samantha Haywood.
Congratulations Chase! Congratulations Martha!