Longlist announced For One of Canada's Largest Non-Fiction Prizes

The jury for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, one of Canada’s largest literary non-fiction prizes, has released its longlist of finalists for 2013.

One hundred and forty-three books were nominated for the $40,000 prize by 45 publishers from across the country. From that entry, the prize jury has selected the following longlist of ten books.

Title	Author	Publisher
A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape	Candace Savage	Greystone Books
A Season in Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda	Robert Fowler	HarperCollins Canada
A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey from Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring	Nahlah Ayed	Penguin Group Canada
here we are among the living: a memoir in emails	Samantha Bernstein	Tightrope Books
Pinboy: A Memoir	George Bowering	Cormorant Books
Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age	Modris Eksteins	Knopf Canada
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile	Taras Grescoe	HarperCollins Canada
Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy	Andrew Preston	Knopf Canada
The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen	Stephen R. Bown	D & M Publishers Inc.
Walls: Travels Along the Barricades	Marcello Di Cintio	Goose Lane Editions

The finalists for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction will be announced December 4, 2012. The award presentation will take place in Vancouver in early 2013.

The Foundation is also pleased to announce the jury for the 2013 British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

Paul Whitney served as City Librarian at Vancouver Public Library until his retirement at the end of 2010. He currently consults and teaches on libraries, publishing, and related public policy issues.

Martin Levin has been the books editor of the Globe and Mail since 1996.

Jan Whitford has had a long career in Canadian and international book publishing, as Editorial Director, literary agent and has taught at the SFU Masters in Publishing Program, York University Creative Writing Program and Humber School for Writers.

"Canadian authors continue to write, and publishers continue to make available, a most impressive range of non-fiction," said Whitney, " The jury's task is difficult given the strength and diversity of books considered. This year's long list is evidence of the inspiring and illuminating non-fiction available to Canadian readers on an annual basis."

Previous winners of the BC Award include:

• Charlotte Gill for Eating Dirt (2012)
• John Vaillant for The Tiger (2011)
• Ian Brown for The Boy in the Moon (2010)
• Russell Wangersky for Burning Down the House (2009)
• Lorna Goodison for From Harvey River (2008)
• Noah Richler for This Is My Country, What's Yours? (2007)
• Rebecca Godfrey for Under the Bridge (2006)
• Patrick Lane for There Is a Season (2005)