Past winners include Martha Baillie in 2024 for There is No Blue<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Christina Sharpe\u00a0in 2023 for Ordinary Notes<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Writers’ Trust of Canada is an organization that supports Canadian writers through literary awards, fellowships, financial grants, mentorships and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n If you’re interested in awards,\u00a0the 2026\u00a0CBC Short Story Prize<\/a>\u00a0will be accepting submissions between Sept. 1 and Nov. 1. You can submit your original, unpublished short fiction for a chance to win\u00a0$6,000 from the\u00a0Canada Council for the Arts<\/a>, a two-week writing residency at\u00a0Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity<\/a>\u00a0and have your story published on\u00a0CBC Books<\/a>.<\/p>\n The winner\u00a0of the Hilary Weston Prize for nonfiction will be announced at the Writers’ Trust awards gala on Nov. 13 in Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n Get to know the 2025 finalists and their books below.<\/p>\n One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad On Oct. 25,\u00a02023, after Israel\u00a0bombed\u00a0Gaza following\u00a0the Oct. 7 attacks, Egyptian Canadian journalist Omar El Akkad\u00a0posted a statement on social media:\u00a0“One day, when it’s safe, when there’s no personal downside to calling a thing what it is, when it’s too late to hold anyone accountable, everyone will have always been against this.”<\/p>\n His book\u00a0One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This<\/a>\u00a0expands on his powerful social media message and chronicles his thoughts on\u00a0the fragile nature of truth, justice, privilege and morality.<\/p>\n “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This<\/a> is an act of public service that compels us to grapple with the conflict in Gaza with artful urgency,” said the jury in a press statement.<\/p>\n “Writing with an elegant blend of emotional clarity and intellectual layering, El Akkad takes a bold stance on the conduits of historical memory and moral posturing and fearlessly lays out what is at stake if we fail to acknowledge we are all witnesses.”<\/p>\n El Akkad is a\u00a0journalist and author who currently lives in Portland, Ore. His\u00a0novel\u00a0American War<\/a>\u00a0was defended on\u00a0Canada Reads<\/a>\u00a02018 by actor Tahmoh Penikett. He also wrote the novel\u00a0\u00a0What Strange Paradise<\/a>, which\u00a0won\u00a0the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize<\/a>\u00a0and was defended on\u00a0Canada Reads<\/a>\u00a02022 by\u00a0Tareq Hadhad<\/a>.<\/p>\n LISTEN | Omar El Akkad on\u00a0Front Burner:\u00a0<\/p>\n Front BurnerOmar El Akkad on Gaza, and ‘breaking up’ with the West<\/p>\n The Snag by Tessa McWatt In\u00a0The Snag<\/a>,\u00a0Tessa McWatt wrote\u00a0about confronting grief when\u00a0her mother’s dementia progressed and she could no longer live independently. This led McWatt to a forest, where she discovered that from the youngest seedling to the\u00a0oldest snag in the forest, every stage of a tree’s life holds meaning \u2014 finding solace in the natural world as a source of healing and understanding.<\/p>\n “The Snag is a beautiful exploration of love, grief, and the fragile ties that hold families together while also keeping them at a distance,” said the jury.<\/p>\n “With incredible detail and sharp emotional insight, McWatt crafts a story that is both intimate and universal, guiding readers through the complexities of memory, belonging, and loss alongside an environment in crisis.”<\/p>\n McWatt is the author of several novels and two books for young readers.\u00a0She wrote the memoir\u00a0Shame on Me<\/a>, which won the 2020 Bocas Prize for Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Prize. Her work has been nominated for\u00a0Governor General’s Literary\u00a0Awards and\u00a0the\u00a0Toronto Book Awards. McWatt is a creative writing professor at the University of East Anglia. Originally from Guyana, she grew up in Canada and now lives in London, England.<\/p>\n The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse by Vinh Nguyen In his memoir,\u00a0The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse<\/a>, Vinh Nguyen\u00a0retraces\u00a0his family’s journey from post-war Vietnam to Canada \u2014 and how this moment in history resonates with\u00a0experiences in the diaspora today. The work is a genre-bending mix of real-life experiences, meticulous research and inventive history to explore the nature of family, immigration and identity.<\/p>\n “The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse is an arresting and lyrical memoir that deftly weaves together memory, longing, and speculative invention into a deeply human exploration of identity,” said the jury.<\/p>\n “Grounded in the mystery of an absent father, Nguyen takes readers on a profound journey through family, land, and loss, navigating shimmering distortions of thought and real-life struggle.”<\/p>\n Nguyen is a Toronto-based writer, editor\u00a0and educator whose work has been published\u00a0in\u00a0Brick, Literary Hub and The Malahat Review.\u00a0He is a nonfiction editor at The New Quarterly, where he curates an ongoing series on refugee, migrant\u00a0and diasporic writing. He was shortlisted for a National Magazine Award and won the John Charles Polanyi Prize for\u00a0Literature. In 2022, he was a\u00a0Lambda Literary nonfiction fellow.\u00a0The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse<\/a>\u00a0is also shortlisted for the 2025 Toronto Book Award<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n LISTEN | Vinh Nguyen on\u00a0The Sunday Magazine:\u00a0<\/p>\n The Sunday MagazineMemories of Vietnam, 50 years after the war<\/p>\n Theory of Water by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson In\u00a0Theory of Water<\/a>, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson discovers and traces the historical and cultural interactions of Indigenous peoples with water in all its forms. She presents water as a catalyst for radical transformation\u00a0and shows how it has the potential to heal and reshape the world in response to environmental and social injustice.\u00a0<\/p>\n “In her radical exploration of water, Simpson topples anthropocentrism and conventional ontologies to reveal water in all its forms as a powerful decolonizing force that connects us all,” said the jury.<\/p>\n “Simpson’s brilliant and sintering weave of story, research, and Nishnaabeg teachings in Theory of Water offers a generous and transformative perspective on world-building.”<\/p>\n Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, activist, musician, artist, author and member of Alderville First Nation. Her books include\u00a0Islands of Decolonial Love<\/a>,\u00a0This Accident of Being Lost<\/a>, which was shortlisted for the Rogers Writer’s Trust Fiction Prize and the Trillium Book Award,\u00a0Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies<\/a>, which\u00a0was shortlisted for the\u00a0Governor General’s Literary Award<\/a>\u00a0for fiction and the Dublin Literary Prize, and\u00a0Rehearsals for Living<\/a>, a collaboration with Robyn Maynard, which was shortlisted for the\u00a0Governor General’s Literary Award<\/a>\u00a0for nonfiction.<\/p>\n LISTEN |\u00a0Leanne Betasamosake Simpson\u00a0on\u00a0The Sunday Magazine:\u00a0<\/p>\n The Sunday MagazineProtecting our water in a time of crisis<\/p>\n A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews In the memoir\u00a0A Truce That is Not Peace, award-winning author Miriam Toews\u00a0answers the question\u00a0“why do you write?” in preparation for a literary event in Mexico City.\u00a0As she thinks the question over, she unearths new layers of grief and helplessness surrounding her sister’s suicide, which happened\u00a0over 15 years ago\u00a0\u2014 and realizes that one of her reasons for\u00a0writing\u00a0is to fill the gaping silence her sister left behind.<\/p>\n “Years after the suicides of both her father and her sister,\u00a0Toews writes into the silence to create an engrossing maze of associative fragments that grapple with the extraordinary in the everyday,” said the jury.<\/p>\n “Invited to respond to the question, ‘Why do I write?’ for a writers’ event, Toews can’t produce what the committee wants. Since both silence and words are failures, the question Toews explores may as well be: ‘Why do you live?'”<\/p>\n Toews is the author of several\u00a0books, including\u00a0A Complicated Kindness,\u00a0Fight Night\u00a0and\u00a0Summer of My Amazing Luck.\u00a0Her work has earned numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, the\u00a0Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award and the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Toews’ book\u00a0Women Talking\u00a0was adapted into an\u00a0Academy-award winning film\u00a0directed by Sarah Polley.\u00a0She\u00a0was also\u00a0appointed to the Order of Canada\u00a0<\/a>in 2025.<\/p>\n LISTEN | Miriam Toews\u00a0on\u00a0The Current:\u00a0<\/p>\n The CurrentMiriam Toews on why she writes, and how it helps her survive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five Canadian books have made the shortlist for the 2025 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for nonfiction. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[489,156,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-14190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/one-day-everyone-will-have-always-been-against-this-by-omar-el-akkad-1.jpg\")
One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is a book by Omar El Akkad. (Knopf, Kateshia Pendergrass)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/the-snag-by-tessa-mcwatt.jpg\")
The Snag is a book by Tessa McWatt. (Random House Canada, Bill Knight)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/vinh-nguyen-and-his-new-book-the-migrant-rain-falls-in-reverse.jpg\")
In The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse, author Vinh Nguyen retraces his family’s journey, his father’s disappearance, and how this moment in history resonates with diasporic experiences today. (Nam Phi Dang, Harper Collins Canada)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/theory-of-water-by-leanne-betasamosake-simpson.jpg\")
Theory of Water is a book by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. (Knopf Canada, Zahra Siddiqi)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/a-truce-that-is-not-peace-by-miriam-toews-1.jpg\")
A Truce That Is Not Peace is a book by Miriam Toews. (Knopf Canada, Mark Boucher)<\/p>\n