Shortlist announced for Charles Taylor Prize

Among five finalists for $25K award are Celia Franca and P.K. Page biographies

If you plan on reading all five finalists for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary NonFiction before the winner is announced in early March, start now. They average 495 pages each in length.

These are big, weighty books concerned with world issues and world builders. Or, as jury member Joseph Kertes put it Wednesday morning: “These will stand the test of time.”

There’s an examination of the intersection of war and religion, a look at our country’s role in the two world wars, a study of one of the world’s most famous paintings and two comprehensive biographies of iconic Canadians.

The nominees for the $25,000 prize are Andrew Preston for Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy; Tim Cook for Warlords: Borden, Mackenzie King, and Canada’s World Wars; Sandra Djwa for Jour- ney With No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page; Ross King for Leonardo and the Last Supper; and Carol Bishop-Gwyn for The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca.

“There were some very, very good books that we regretted not putting on, but ultimately … they were not books that I thought even scholars would be looking for in 50 years,” said Kertes, an author and founder of the Humber College School for Writers, at a news conference in Toronto.

“We wanted the books to be important, and we wanted them to be very well written, obviously, and to say something that hasn’t already been said about the subjects.”

The other jurors, who together considered 129 books submitted by 43 publishers from around the world, are broadcasting executive Susanne Boyce and journalist Richard Gwyn, a former winner of the prize; he is married to Bishop-Gwyn, but removed himself from all discussions about the book.

“It was we other two jurors,” Kertes said, “who enthusiastically placed the biography on the shortlist.”

Cook won in 2009 for Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1917-1918 King is a two-time finalist.

The winner will be announced March 4 in Toronto.

Andrew Westoll won last year’s prize for his book The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary.