Canadian author M.G. Vassanji stands for a portrait in Toronto on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012. Non-fiction books by novelists Vassanji and Kathleen Winter are among the finalists for this year's $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Aaron Vincent Elkaim
Republished January 14, 2015 - 1:15 PM
Original Publication Date January 14, 2015 - 9:15 AM
TORONTO - Non-fiction books by novelists M.G. Vassanji and Kathleen Winter are among the finalists for this year's $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize.
Vassanji, a two-time Giller winner based in Toronto, is on the short list with "And Home Was Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa" (Doubleday Canada).
Newfoundland-raised Winter, a former Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist, made the cut for "Boundless: Tracing Land and Dream in a New Northwest Passage" (House of Anansi Press).
The list of five finalists also includes Toronto's Plum Johnson for "They Left Us Everything" (Penguin Canada), David O'Keefe of Montreal for "One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada's Tragedy at Dieppe" (Random House Canada) and London-based Barbara Taylor with "The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times" (Hamish Hamilton Canada).
This is the 14th year for the prize, which honours non-fiction writing and is named after late author Charles Taylor.
The 2015 jury includes arts executive Kevin Garland, journalist Martin Levin and writer Andrew Preston, who won the prize in 2013.
The winner, who will be announced in Toronto on March 2, will also get to choose who receives the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Award, which comes with a cheque for $10,000.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2015