news release the finalists for the fourteenth rbc rbc ... · barbara taylor for the last asylum: a...

Wednesday, January 14 , 2015 • Toronto, Ontario: For immediate Release

A T A NEWS CONFERENCE , held on Wednesday, January 14th, in Toronto, jurors

Ms. Kevin Garland, Martin Levin, and Andrew Preston, named five authors as this

year’s finalists for The 2015 RBC Taylor Prize.

The f ive f inal i sts and their books are: They Left Us Everything by PLUM JOHNSON

(Toronto, Ontario), published by Penguin Canada; One Day in August: The Untold Story

Behind Canada’s Tragedy at Dieppe by DAVID O 'KEEFE (Montreal, Quebec), published by

Random House Canada; The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times by BARBAR A

TAYLOR (London, England), published by Hamish Hamilton Canada; And Home Was

Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa by M. G . VASSANJ I (Toronto, Ontario), published by

Doubleday Canada; Boundless by KATHLEEN WINTER (Montreal, Quebec), published by

House of Anansi Press.

“These five books represent not only the finest non-fiction written in Canada today

but also represent the topics that Canadians find interesting,” said Prize founder Noreen

Taylor. "Taken collectively, they present a fascinating glimpse of the lens we look through

when we view ourselves, our history, and the world beyond our borders.”

"RBC Wealth Management is honoured to be the title sponsor of Canada’s most

prestigious non-fiction prize,” said Vijay Parmar, President, RBC PH&N Investment

Counsel. “The RBC Taylor Prize fosters literary excellence and aligns with RBC’s overall

commitment to the arts. We strongly believe that art has the power to enrich our lives

and enhance our communities and therefore are thrilled to play a part in helping to raise

the profile of those writers who make an indelible mark on Canadian literature.”

The RBC Taylor Pr ize recognizes excellence in Canadian non-fiction writing and

emphasizes the development of the careers of the authors it celebrates. All finalists will

be supported by extensive publicity and promotional opportunities over the next two

months. The five authors will take part in a free Round Table discussion at the Toronto

Reference Library in downtown Toronto on Thursday February 26th at 7:00 pm. This

public author event is sponsored by the International Festival of Authors (IFOA), The

Toronto Public Library and The Globe and Mail newspaper. As well, they will appear on

stage at The Globe and Mail / Ben McNally Authors’ Brunch on Sunday, March 1st at the

Omni King Edward Hotel. For tickets: www.benmcnallybooks.com.

This will be the fourteenth awarding of The RBC Taylor Prize. The prize consists

of $25,000 and a crystal trophy for the winning author and $2,000 for each of the run-

THE FINALISTS FOR THE FOURTEENTHRBC TAYLOR PRIZEShortlisted authors based in Ontario, Quebec and London, England

news release

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recognizingexcellence

ners-up as well as extensive national publicity and promotional support to help all books

stand out in the national media and book retailers across the country. The winner of this

year's prize will be announced at a gala luncheon and awards ceremony at The King

Edward Hotel in downtown Toronto on Monday, March 2nd.

Sharing a commitment to emerging Canadian artists, The Charles Taylor Foundation

and RBC will also grant the second annual RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Award.

Shortly after the March 2nd luncheon an emerging author will be selected by the 2015

RBC Taylor Prize winner.

At the Wednesday morning News Conference each jury citation for the five

finalists and their books was read out. Those citations are as follows:

Plum Johnson for They Left Us Everything, published by Penguin Canada

The jury notes: “Beautifully observed and written with great warmth and wit, They Left

Us Everything is an absorbing memoir of grief, growth, and decluttering. Plum Johnson

must deal not merely with the legacy of her difficult, ill-matched parents, but is handed

the burden of disposing of the seemingly endless contents of their 23-room Lake Ontario

home, which becomes a character on its own in the telling. The task, which she initially

thinks manageable, proves Herculean, far more complex than she’d imagined, involving

understanding her past and packing up its contents, both literal and metaphorical.

A story of love, loss, and legacy, written with compassion and humour, it subtly evokes

T.S. Eliot’s lines: ‘We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring

will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.’”

David O’Keefe for One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada’s Tragedy at

Dieppe, published by Random House Canada

The jury notes: “Ever since news of its failure rippled across the Atlantic 72 years ago, the

Dieppe raid has been a staple of Canadian history and a touchstone of our national

identity. It is difficult to imagine that a historian could have anything genuinely new to

say about it, yet David O’Keefe shows a new side to the story. Highly original and brac-

ingly revisionist, One Day in August is that rare book that is able to say something new

about something so familiar. Based on extensive research in official records in Canada

and Britain, many of them previously undiscovered or long-forgotten, One Day in August

is historical writing at its best: engrossing, revealing, and enlightening. It should be

required reading for all Canadians.”

Barbara Taylor for The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times, published by

Hamish Hamilton Canada

The jury notes: “A work of major substance and shocking honesty, The Last Asylum is a

haunting tale of madness in the modern age. In this beautifully written memoir, Barbara

Taylor uses her own harrowing experiences in psychoanalysis not only as a vehicle for

personal discovery but as a prism through which to view contemporary attitudes towards

mental illness. But Taylor is also a noted scholar of modern British culture and society,

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and her investigative powers as a historian are also on full display in this book. She

explores Friern, an insane asylum first built by the Victorians where she received exten-

sive treatment and which serves as the backdrop for her painful but revealing personal

journey. Exquisitely crafted, The Last Asylum is an intellectual and stylistic tour de force.”

M. G . Vassanj i for And Home Was Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa, published by

Doubleday Canada

The jury notes: “In And Home Was Kariakoo, novelist M. G. Vassanji has written both an

evocative memoir of his childhood in East Africa and a searching look at Tanzania and

Kenya today. Returning in his sixties to his old neighbourhood in Dar es Salaam, and

then embarking on a journey that takes him on local buses over rutted, barely passable

roads to villages and ghost settlements, he changes the lens through which we view

Africa. Vassanji casts a cool and unsparingly critical eye over the slave trade, colonialism

and leftist revolutionaries, over the “beggar” mentality that pervades these countries and

donor celebrities courting publicity. At the same time, he evokes the teeming aliveness of

east Africa, its heat, its smells, its exotic foods and the surprising joyfulness of its people.

In his journey, the reader too uncovers an Africa deserving respect rather than pity.”

Kathleen Winter for Boundless, published by House of Anansi Press

The jury notes: “In this evocative travel memoir, Kathleen Winter joins an expedition

through the North West Passage as official trip “writer.” Thus begins her very personal

voyage. As the ship sails into the Canadian Arctic, following the path of the doomed

Franklin expedition, she reflects on the extraordinary life her parents chose as British

emigrants settling in the wilds of Newfoundland. The events of the voyage are interwo-

ven with her childhood memories, her struggles with adulthood and aging, her often

intense engagement with fellow travelers, and breathtaking descriptions of the arctic

light, the sea, the ice, the stark landscapes, and the people. The impact of climate

change, and Canadian policies and inattention to First Nations are clearly and judicious-

ly presented. The deep impact of this unplanned voyage on Winter’s connection to our

natural world is beautifully and poetically told.”

About the RBC Taylor Pr ize :

The RBC Taylor Pr ize is awarded annually to the author whose book best combines

an excellent command of the English language, an elegance of style, quality of thought,

and subtlety of perception. The Prize consists of $25,000 for the winning author and

$2,000 for each of the runners up.

The Emerging Writer ’s award was established in 2013 to provide recognition and

assistance to a Canadian published author who is working on a significant writing pro-

ject, preferably but not limited to literary non-fiction. Through mentorship from the

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nominating author, and a $10,000 cash award, it is intended that the writer will be able

to progress toward the creation of a first draft work.

The trustees of the Charles Taylor Foundation are: Michael Bradley (Toronto), Vijay

Parmar (Toronto), David Staines (Ottawa), and Noreen Taylor (Toronto).

The presenting sponsor of the RBC Taylor Prize is RBC Wealth Management, its

Major Sponsor is Metropia, its media sponsors are The Globe and Mail (exclusive newspa-

per sponsor), CNW Group, The Huffington Post Canada, Maclean’smagazine, and Quill

& Quiremagazine; its in-kind sponsors are Authors at Harbourfront Centre, Ben

McNally Books, Event Source, Kobo Inc., The Toronto Library Board, and The Omni King

Edward Hotel.

For more information visit: www.rbctaylorprize.ca. For more information about

the finalists visit http://www.rbctaylorprize.ca/2015/finalists_15.asp. Visit RBC Taylor

Prize on Twitter at www.twitter.com/taylorprize. Follow us on Facebook At

www.facebook.com/RBCTaylorPrize.

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Media contact : Stephen Weir & Associates

Stephen Weir: 416.489.5868 | cell: 416.801.3101 | [email protected]

To download high-resolution images of the jury, finalists, and shortlisted titles,

please go to: www.rbctaylorprize.ca/2015/photogallery_15.asp

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They Left Us Everything, written by Plum Johnson (Toronto, Ontario), published

by Penguin Canada .

After almost twenty years of caring for elderly parents — first for their senile father, and then

for their cantankerous ninety-three-year-old mother — author Plum Johnson and her three

younger brothers experience conflicted feelings of grief and relief when their mother, the

surviving parent, dies. Now they must empty and sell the beloved family home, which hasn’t

been de-cluttered in more than half a century. Twenty-three rooms bulge with history,

antiques, and oxygen tanks. Plum remembers her loving but difficult parents who could not

have been more different: the British father, a handsome, disciplined patriarch who

nonetheless could not control his opinionated, extroverted Southern-belle wife who loved

tennis and gin gimlets. The task consumes her, becoming more rewarding than she ever

imagined. Items from childhood trigger memories of her eccentric family growing up in a

small town on the shores of Lake Ontario in the 1950s and 60s. But unearthing new facts

about her parents helps her reconcile those relationships with a more accepting perspective

about who they were and what they valued.

Plum Johnson is an award-winning author, artist and entrepreneur living in Toronto.

She was the founder of KidsCanada Publishing Corp., publisher of KidsToronto, and co-

founder of Help’s Here! resource magazine for seniors and caregivers.

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2015 RBC Taylor Prize author biosand SHORTLISTED book Summaries

Plumjohnson

David O’Keefe

BarbaraTaylor

M. G .Vassanj i

KathleenWinter

One Day in August: The Untold Story Behind Canada’s Tragedy at

Dieppe, written by David O’Keefe (Montreal, Quebec), published by Random House

Canada.

The Dieppe Raid — the darkest day in Canadian military history — has been one of the

most perplexing mysteries of WWII, when almost 4,000 Canadian amphibious troops

stormed the small French port town, only to be ambushed by the waiting Germans,

slaughtered, wounded or captured. This catastrophe, coupled with the 7 decades-long

mystery surrounding the reason for the operation, left a legacy of bitterness and recrimi-

nations and controversial charges ranging from incompetence to conspiracy. O’Keefe's

detective-like research over 15 years in the Intelligence archives of 5 countries now reveals

that it was a vitally secret “pinch raid,” organized by British Naval Intelligence and the

Joint Intelligence Committee. The mission: under cover of a raid to secretly steal the

German code books that would unlock the Enigma cipher machine that held the key to

the German High Command’s plans. One of the key figures behind the mission, along

with Mountbatten and Churchill, was Commander Ian Fleming, waiting in a ship off-

shore for the code books that might have saved countless lives and shortened the war by

some years.

David O’Keefe is an award-winning historian, documentarian and professor at

Marianopolis College in Westmount, Quebec. He served with the The Black Watch

(Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada in Montreal and worked as a Signals Intelligence

research historian for the Directorate of History and Heritage (DND). He has also creat-

ed and collaborated on over 15 documentaries for History Television and appeared on

CBC Radio, Global Television, and the UKTV Network in Great Britain. In 2002 he

joined forces with Emmy award-winner producer Wayne Abbott; among the television

documentaries they have made is Dieppe Uncovered, which aired simultaneously on

History Television in Canada and Yesterday TV in the U.K. on 70th anniversary of the

raid, to major acclaim.

The Last Asylum: A Memoir of Madness in our Times , written by Barbara

Taylor (London, England), published by Hamish Hamilton Canada.

In July 1988, Canadian-born historian Barbara Taylor was admitted to Friern Hospital, a

once-notorious asylum for the insane. Her journey there began when, overwhelmed by

anxiety as she completed her doctoral studies in London, England, she found relief by

dosing herself with alcohol and tranquillizers. She then embarked on what would turn

out to be a decades-long psychoanalysis. The analysis dredged up acutely painful memo-

ries of an unhappy and confusing childhood back in Saskatoon. This searingly honest,

beautifully written memoir is the narrative of the author’s madness years, set inside the

wider story of our treatment of psychiatric illness: from the great age of asylums to the

current era of community care, ‘Big Pharma’, and quick fixes.

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Barbara Taylor is a historian whose previous books include an award-winning study

of nineteenth-century socialist feminism, Eve and the New Jerusalem; an intellectual

biography of the pioneer feminist Mary Wollstonecraft; and On Kindness, a defence of

fellow feeling co-written with the psychoanalyst Adam Phillips. She is a long-standing

editor of the leading history publication History Workshop Journal and a director of the

Raphael Samuel History Centre. She teaches history and English at Queen Mary

University of London.

And Home Was Kariakoo: A Memoir of East Africa, written by M. G. Vassanji

(Toronto, Ontario), published by Doubleday Canada.

From M.G. Vassanji, two-time Giller Prize winner and a GG winner for nonfiction,

comes a poignant love letter to his birthplace and homeland, East Africa — a powerful

and surprising portrait that only an insider could write. Part travelogue, part memoir,

and part history-rarely-told, here is a powerful and timely portrait of a constantly evolv-

ing land. From a description of Zanzibar and its evolution to a visit to a slave-market

town at Lake Tanganyika; from an encounter with a witchdoctor in an old coastal village

to memories of his own childhood in the streets of Dar es Salaam and the suburbs of

Nairobi, Vassanji combines brilliant prose, thoughtful and candid observation, and a

lifetime of revisiting and reassessing the continent that molded him — and, as we discov-

er when we follow the journeys that became this book, shapes him still.

M. G . Vassanj i is the author of six novels, two collections of short stories, and two

works of nonfiction. His first novel, The Gunny Sack, was winner of the Commonwealth

Prize for Canada and the Caribbean. He has won the Giller Prize for both The Book of

Secrets and The In-Between World of Vikram Lall, and the Governor General’s Literary

Award for Non-Fiction for A Place Within: Rediscovering India. His novel The Assassin’s

Song was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award

for Fiction. He was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania, and attended university in the

United States. He lives in Toronto, Canada with his wife and two sons.

Boundless , written by Kathleen Winter (Montreal, Quebec), published by House of

Anansi Press.

In 2010, bestselling author Kathleen Winter took a journey across the storied Northwest

Passage, among marine scientists, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, and curi-

ous passengers. From Greenland to Baffin Island and all along the passage, Winter bears

witness to the new math of the melting North — where polar bears mate with grizzlies,

creating a new hybrid species; where the earth is on the cusp of yielding so much buried

treasure that five nations stand poised to claim sovereignty of the land; and where the

local Inuit population struggles to navigate the tension between taking part in the new

global economy and defending their traditional way of life. In breathtaking prose charged

with vivid descriptions of the land and its people, Kathleen Winter’s Boundless is a

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haunting and powerful story, and a homage to the ever-evolving and magnetic power of

the North.

Kathleen Winter is the author of the international bestseller, Annabel, which was a

finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the

Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Orange Prize for Fiction, and CBC’s Canada

Reads. Her first collection of stories, boys, won both the Winterset Award and the

Metcalf–Rooke Award. A long-time resident of St. John’s, Newfoundland, she now lives

in Montreal.

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Stephen Weir : 416-489-5868 cell: 416-801-3101 [email protected]

To Download high-resolution images of the f inalists and their books

please go to: http://www.rbctaylorprize.ca/2015/photogallery_15.asp

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Biographical Information for theJurors of The 2015 RBC Taylor Prize

MS KEV IN GARL AND is a retired urban planning expert, a senior banking Vice President

and keynote Toronto arts executive. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto and

holds an undergraduate degree in English Literature and a Master of Science degree in

Urban and Regional Planning. She worked as a professional urban planning consultant

with the firm A.J. Diamond Planners ltd. and then moved to commercial real estate

development, as a vice president with BCE Development, and Senior Vice President at

CIBC. In 1998 she was appointed Executive Director of the Canadian Opera House

Corporation where she headed the team that successfully launched the Four Seasons

Centre for the Performing Arts. In 2002 she became Executive Director of The National

Ballet of Canada, where she served for twelve years as Co-CEO with two Artistic

Directors. Ms Garland retired earlier this year.

MARTIN LEV IN is a well-known Toronto columnist and journalist. For many years Mr.

Levin was the Books editor of The Globe and Mail newspaper. He joined the newspaper

writing a weekly column about ideas. During his tenure he was instrumental in turning

The Globe’s book coverage into a stand alone Book section in the paper. He has launched

and edited newspapers for baseball fans and seniors, contributed essays to half a dozen

books, and co-written a play about the world’s worst moviemaker.

Andrew Preston is an award-winning Canadian author, editor and lecturer based at

Cambridge University in the UK. Andrew Preston teaches modern history at Cambridge

where he is a Fellow of Clare College and editor of The Historical Journal. In addition to

authoring over thirty scholarly articles, his articles have appeared in for major newspa-

pers and magazines in North America. Preston is the author of the acclaimed study The

War Council: McGeorge Bundy, the NSC, and Vietnam (Harvard, 2006) and co-editor of

three other books: Nixon in the World: U.S. Foreign Relations, 1969-1977 (Oxford, 2008);

America in the World: A History in Documents from the War with Spain to the War on

Terror (Princeton, 2014); and Faithful Republic: Religion and Politics in the 20th Century

United States (Penn, 2015). His book Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in

American War and Diplomacy (Knopf, 2012) was a finalist for the Cundill Prize and win-

ner of the 2013 RBC Charles Taylor Prize.


Stephen Weir : 416.489.5868 cell: 416.801.3101 [email protected]

To Download high-resolution images of the f inalists and their books

please go to: http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2015/photogallery_15.asp

KevinGarland

MartinLev in

Andrew Preston