J. W. Dafoe Foundation

Five books drawn from a field of thirty are shortlisted for the 2022 John W. Dafoe Book Prize:

Barry Gough. Possessing Meares Island: A Historian’s Journey into the Past of Clayoquot Sound. Harbour Publishing.
https://harbourpublishing.com/products/9781550179576

Daniel R. Meister. The Racial Mosaic: A Pre-history of Canadian Multiculturalism. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
https://www.mqup.ca/racial-mosaic–the-products-9780228008712.php

Peter Price. Questions of Order: Confederation and the Making of Modern Canada. University of Toronto Press.
https://utorontopress.com/9781487522186/questions-of-order/

Donald B. Smith. Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today. University of Toronto Press.
https://utorontopress.com/9781442627703/seen-but-not-seen/

Clayton Thomas-Muller. Life in the City of Dirty Water: A Memoir of Healing. Allen Lane Canada.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/634477/life-in-the-city-of-dirty-water-by-clayton-thomas- muller/

The winner will be named in mid-June and invited to give a talk in Winnipeg accessible to the community in Fall 2022. Details will follow.

The John W. Dafoe Book Prize memorializes John Wesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian editors of the 20th century. It is one of the richest book awards in Canada for non-fiction excellence. Selection criteria include subjects involving Canada, Canadians and the Canadian nation in international affairs. In his tenure at the Manitoba Free Press, later renamed the Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901-1944, Dafoe was known for his advocacy of western development, free trade, and national independence. His case for Britain’s adoption of the Statute of Westminster in 1931 helped to create the eight dominions which became the nucleus of the present 54-nation Commonwealth.

Full details on press release, here.