Noreen Taylor, founder and chair of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-FictionTom Sandler/The Canadian Press
Proving that the season for book awards knows no bounds, the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction announced on Monday its first-ever "long list" of titles contending for its top honour in 2012.
"Last year, at our 10th anniversary, the jury informed us that there were so many additional titles so close to being named to the short list that we realized it was time to issue a long list," prize founder Noreen Taylor said. " Now, as I look at the long-listed titles, it is clear that it was the right decision."
Comprising 11 books said to be "still under consideration by the 2012 jury," the list highlights a number of titles new to the this season's awards lists as well as a few already considered and rejected by previous juries for other projects.
The short list will be announced on Jan. 10, 2012 and the winner on March 5, 2012. Contenders for the $25,000 prize are:
- Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter, by Carmen Aguirre
- Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, by Wade Davis
- The Patrol: Seven Days in the Life of a Canadian Soldier in Afghanistan, by Ryan Flavelle
- Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, by Charlotte Gill
- Nation Maker: Sir John A. MacDonald: His Life, Our Times Volume Two: 1867-1891, by Richard Gwyn
- The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit, by J.J. Lee
- Facing the Hunter: Reflections on a Misunderstood Way of Life, by David Adams Richards
- Why Not? Fifteen Reasons to Live, by Ray Robertson
- Afflictions and Departures: Essays, by Madeline Sonik
- The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery, by Andrew Westoll
- Bad Animals: A Father's Accidental Education in Autism, by Joel Yanofsky