Vancouver freelance journalist Charles Montgomery has won the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction for his debut book The Last Heathen: Encounters with Ghosts and Ancestors in Melanesia.
Part travelogue, part family history, part anthropology, Montgomery's book revisits the journey of his great-grandfather, a Victorian-era bishop -- and his cultural and political legacy -- through the isolated islands of the west Pacific.
The jury, consisting of editor Jan Walter and writers Robert Kroetsch and Bill New, called the book "an irresistible adventure in discovery, a journey into rough terrain."
"I'm just falling apart," said an elated Montgomery. "I'm part of a group of writers in Vancouver, the FCC, and we really believe in the craft -- that with narrative journalism or creative non-fiction we can accomplish the same things that are accomplished in fiction or novels, steal the structure and techniques of novelists and address the same essential truths while telling true stories. That's why I am so excited about the Charles Taylor Prize; it really celebrates that and this is what we aspire to."
Montgomery, born in 1968, is best-known as an award-winning magazine writer, penning pieces for Canadian Geographic, Western Living and other publications. He plans on using the prize money to help fund the writing of his next book, a work examining connections between borders, cities and mobility focusing on Mexico City -- but first he'll pay $1,000 to a fellow finalist, Toronto-area journalist Paul William Roberts, nominated for A War Against Truth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq, a from-the-field look at Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. As a self-described "huge fan" of Roberts who even sent him fan mail, Montgomery lost a bet to Roberts when he wagered that A War Against Truth would win the prize.
The other finalists for the Charles Taylor Prize were a pair of poets: Toronto's Christopher Dewdney, for Acquainted with the Night: Excursions Through the World after Dark, an exploration of perceptions of life after sundown; and Victoria's Patrick Lane, for There Is a Season: A Memoir in a Garden, his account of finding the strength to recover from his 45-year addictions through tending his garden.
The jury read 96 books from 28 publishers to seek out those that achieved the prize's guidelines of an elegant quality of language and new, unusual insights into the subject matter. "It was not an easy thing to come up with the shortlist, and it was even less easy to come up with the winner," said Walter yesterday morning prior to the luncheon announcement of the winner at Toronto's Windsor Arms Hotel.
"Every book on the shortlist had wonderful qualities, and they are all different in their own ways. In the end you are not judging perfectly identical things -- it's apples and oranges. But we do all feel very comfortable with the conclusion," she said.
The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction was created in 1999 to celebrate the country's best works in an often overlooked genre and named after the former Globe and Mail foreign correspondent and editorial writer. Taylor also wrote a number of books; one of the best known is Six Journeys: A Canadian Pattern, a diverse collection of biographical essays on Canadians from Brigadier James Sutherland Brown to Emily Carr.
One of the richest awards in Canadian literature, the $25,000 Charles Taylor Prize becomes an annual event this year; previously it was granted once every two years. Past winners of the prize include Wayne Johnston for his family history and memoir, Baltimore's Mansion; Carol Shields for her biography of an enduring and endearing writer, Jane Austen; and Isabel Huggan for her reflections on the nature of "home," Belonging.