The Writers' Trust of Canada Reveals Shortlist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

The Writers' Trust of Canada has named the five finalists for the $25,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. The prize, now in its sixteenth year, is awarded annually to a work of literary nonfiction that offers readers an informed and compelling perspective on Canadian politics, its players or principles.

This year's finalists were selected by a jury made up of Canadian military historian Tim Cook, author and Globe and Mail journalist Robyn Doolittle and McGill University professor and political commentator Antonia Maioni. The books they chose as finalists include a biography of Liberal reformer Paul Martin Sr., a portrait of influential public servant O.D. Skelton, a profile of Canada's 22nd Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a critique of Big Oil and the fracking industry and a reasoning for climate change as a human rights issue in Canada's North.

The winner will be announced in Ottawa on April 20, 2016 at the Politics and the Pen Gala. For more information, please visit the Writers' Trust of Canada website.

The Finalists for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing:

• Greg Donaghyh for Grit: The Life and Politics of Paul Martin Sr. (UBC Press)
• Norman Hillmer for O.D. Skelton: A Portrait of Canadian Ambition (University of Toronto Press)
• John Ibbitson for Stephen Harper (Signal/McClelland & Stewart)
• Andrew Nikiforuk for Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider's Stand Against the World's Most Powerful Industry (Greystone Books and the David Suzuki Institute)
• Sheila Watt-Cloutier for The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet (Allen Lane)