Chronicle of western woes wins

WINNIPEG — Toronto journalist Mary Janigan has won this year’s J.W. Dafoe Book Prize for non-fiction.

Janigan nabbed the $10,000 honour Tuesday for Let the Eastern Bastards Freeze in the Dark: The West Versus the Rest Since Confederation (Alfred A. Knopf Canada).

The book details the struggle of western provinces to obtain control of their natural resources from Ottawa. The title refers to a slogan and bumper sticker popular in the West during the contentious National Energy Program of the 1980s. The novel is also a finalist for the $50,000 Donner Prize. The Dafoe will be awarded May 15 in Winnipeg.