Anna Porter finalist for political writing award


Books on Harper, Arctic sovereignty also vying for Shaughnessy Cohen Prize

Last Updated: Wednesday, January 5, 2011 | 1:08 PM ET

CBC News
Anna Porter, founder of Canadian publishing house Key Porter Books, is a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing. A short list of contenders for the award, which goes to a Canadian writer who enhances understanding of a political issue, was released Wednesday by the Writers Trust of Canada. The finalists are:
  • Tim Cook for The Madman and the Butcher: The Sensational Wars of Sam Hughes and General Arthur Currie, published by Allen Lane Canada.
  • Shelagh D. Grant for Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America, published by Douglas & McIntyre.
  • Lawrence Martin for Harperland: The Politics of Control, published by Viking Canada.
  • Anna Porter for The Ghosts of Europe: Journeys Through Central Europe's Troubled Past and Uncertain Future, published by Douglas & McIntyre.
  • Doug Saunders for Arrival City: The Final Migration and our Next World, published by Knopf Canada.
In The Ghosts of Europe, Porter, who was born in Hungary, examines the changes that occurred in the former communist bloc after the fall of communism. The book is based on interviews with leading intellectuals, politicians, former dissidents and others throughout Central Europe. Harperland: The Politics of Control is written by Lawrence Martin and has been nominated for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for political writing. (Viking Canada)Her last book, Kasztner's Train, won the Nereus Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Martin, a Globe and Mail columnist, examines Prime Minister Stephen Harper's style of leadership, including the growth of executive power, in Harperland. Ottawa-based Martin has written eight non-fiction books, including Chrétien: The Will to Win, the first volume of his biography of the former prime minister. Cook's The Madman and The Butcher looks at a sensational libel trial pitting Arthur Currie, Canadian Corps commander during the First World War, against Sam Hughes, Canada's war minister during the first part of the war. Cook is a curator at the Canadian War Museum and a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa. Grant'sPolar Imperative is a history of Arctic sovereignty covering Greenland and Alaska as well as Canada. She is a professor of Canadian studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. Saunders, European bureau chief of the Globe and Mail based in London, writes about the migration from rural areas to the cities and how it will play out throughout the world in Arrival City. The winner will be announced on Feb, 16 at the Politics and the Pen Gala in Ottawa. The winner gets $25,000 and each finalist $2,500. Shaughnessy Cohen was an outspoken and popular MP from Windsor, Ont., who died Dec. 9, 1998.

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