2022 Book Prize Winner: “Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today” by Donald B. Smith

Donald B. Smith has won the 2022 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize for Seen but Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today published by the University of Toronto Press (UTP).

Donald B. Smith’s historical work is the unanimous choice of this year’s jury. Jury Chair Dr. Eugene Walz describes the winning book this way: “A sparkling capstone to a lifetime of impressive historical work, Donald B. Smith’s timely and accessible book Seen but Not Seen examines the views of sixteen Canadian influencers – from Sir John A. Macdonald, Duncan Campbell Scott, Crowfoot and Long Lance to Emily Carr, Pauline Johnson and Harold Cardinal – to reveal the range of attitudes about First Nations people in Canada.”

The Prize will be formally awarded at the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Book Prize Event this fall in Winnipeg. The J.W. Dafoe Foundation thanks this year’s dedicated jury members, Dr. Eugene Walz, Ms. Mary Agnes Welch, and Dr. Emőke Szathmáry, for their service to the J.W. Dafoe Foundation and their selection of Seen but Not Seen for the 2022 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.

The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize memorializes John Wesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian newspaper editors of the 20th century. During 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, national independence, and the British Commonwealth. The Prize is one of the richest book awards in Canada for excellence in non-fiction, with a focus on major subjects involving Canada, the West, and Canadians, as well as the Canadian nation in international affairs.

See the full release with details here.

Book Prize 2022: Five outstanding books are shortlisted for John W. Dafoe Book Prize

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.

2022 Book Prize – Call for Submissions

The John Wesley Dafoe Foundation is once again pleased to solicit submissions for its annual Book Prize. The 2022 Dafoe Book Prize, valued at $10,000.00, will be awarded to a publication with a 2021 imprint “. . . for distinguished writing by Canadians, or authors resident in Canada, that contributes to the understanding of Canada, Canadians, and/or Canada’s place in the world.” Co- or multiple authored books are eligible, but not edited books consisting of chapters from many different authors.

A nominal submission fee of $50 per entry is required. Publishers and individuals are encouraged to submit their entries (four copies for each nominee), with the appropriate submission fee in cheque form payable to the J.W. Dafoe Foundation and forwarded to Dr. Andrea Rounce, Honorary Secretary, The Dafoe Foundation, c/o 635 Oakenwald Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 1M3 by Wednesday December 15th, 2021. Please note that late entries for books published in later November and December will be accepted into the new year, as long as we are advised that they are coming.

Formal announcement of the short list will happen in mid-March 2022, followed by the announcement of the winner in late March. We anticipate that the Prize will be formally awarded to the author(s) at the Annual J.W. Dafoe Book Prize dinner in late spring.

 

Full details on the official announcement here.

2021 Book Prize Winner: The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire by Stephen R. Bown wins the $10,000 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize for 2021

Stephen R. Bown has won the 2021 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize for The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire published by Doubleday Canada.

 

Stephen R. Bown’s historical work is the unanimous choice of this year’s J.W. Dafoe Book Prize Jury. Jury Chair Eugene Walz describes the award-winning book in this way: “A thorough and comprehensive history of the international operation that helped create western Canada, The Company focuses on vivid portraits of the people whose personalities and actions made the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) what it was and what it failed to be. The book seamlessly weaves together a continuous series of often unlikely adventures, bringing to the fore personalities both familiar (George Simpson and Samuel Hearne) and previously slighted (the Chipewyan woman guide and interpreter Thanadelthur, the bilingual intermediary Matonabbee, and the Black translator James Douglas). Written by experienced writer and historian Stephen R. Bown, The Company moves at a fast pace with many intriguing twists and turns. It’s a well-written corporate biography for this generation.”

 

Juror Emőke Szathmáry adds: “It is the story of the HBC as depicted by the people who created it, led it to its success, and then led it to its demise and the end of its monopoly in North America. There is no question that the author has had to fill in blanks not provided by biographies, autobiographies, letters and other records of the players in the HBC drama. Fortunately Bown is a gifted writer who seems to know relevant details of the landscape over which the HBC story unfolded, and over which the people in his story paddled and walked in every season.”

 

Juror Mary Agnes Welch says “At a time when the downtown Bay is a white elephant in many Western Canadian cities, this book is a timely reminder of the vast and historic successes – and flaws – of the company and how the recent history of Western Canada is really a corporate one. It is also a reminder of just how adventurous and swashbuckling that recent history actually is, full of weird and admirable and occasionally contemptible colonial characters. This book was, to my surprise, a page-turner and upended many of my vague impressions of the famous men who colonized the west.”

 

The Prize will be formally awarded at the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Book Prize Event this fall in Winnipeg (if circumstances allow). The J.W. Dafoe Foundation thanks this year’s dedicated jury members, Dr. Eugene Walz, Ms. Mary Agnes Welch, and Dr. Emőke Szathmáry, for their service to the J.W. Dafoe Foundation in its awarding of the 2021 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.

 

The J.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 excellence in non-fiction, with a focus on subjects involving Canada, the West, and 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, national independence, and the British Commonwealth.

 

The Foundation’s activities also support $10,000 fellowships for M.A. students pursuing studies in international relations, international conflict resolution, economics, history, law or politics at the University of Manitoba; a $1,000 writing award for Manitoba post-secondary students; the annual J.W. Dafoe Political Studies Conference (PSSC); and a number of colloquia on Canada in international affairs.  For more information on the Foundation and its other activities, visit https://dafoefoundation.ca/

 

For questions or further information, contact Dr. Andrea Rounce, Honorary Secretary, at andrea(dot)rounce(at)umanitoba(dot)ca

Full press release available here.

Writing award opportunity: The J. W. Dafoe Writing Award

The J.W. Dafoe Foundation was established by the friends and admirers of John Wesley Dafoe, editor of the Manitoba/Winnipeg Free Press from 1901 until his death in 1944. Dafoe was one of Canada’s most distinguished journalists and editors, who had a special interest in Western Canada and in Canada’s place in the world.

In honour of John Wesley Dafoe, the J.W. Dafoe Foundation offers $1,000 annually to a full-time undergraduate or graduate student in any year of studies who has demonstrated outstanding research and writing ability and whose written work is of publishable or potentially publishable quality. The purpose of the Award is to support scholarship and research on any issue in the field of Canada on the world stage, or of Western Canada.

If you wish to apply for the J.W. Dafoe Writing Award, you must submit:

  1. your paper by June 15 to the Secretary of the J.W. Dafoe Foundation (addresses below), and
  2. the name of the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the revisions to your paper. Papers submitted without the name of a supervisor will not be accepted.

Recipients of this award are expected to use the funds to cover research and living costs to enable them to do whatever additional research and writing is necessary to enhance the prospect of publication of their written work in a reputable academic journal. The Award recipient will be announced in late June/early July.

Submit your paper, and the name of the faculty member who has agreed to supervise your work, no later than June 15, 2021 by e-mail to: Dr. Andrea Rounce, Honourary Secretary, J.W. Dafoe Foundation at andrea(dot)rounce(at)umanitoba(dot)ca.

2021 Book Prize: Four outstanding books are shortlisted for $10,000 John W. Dafoe Book Prize

Four books drawn from a field of thirty, from across Canada, are shortlisted for the 2021 John W. Dafoe Book Prize:

 

Larry Audlaluk.  What I Remember, What I Know: The Life of a High Arctic Exile.  Inhabit Media, Inc.  https://inhabitmedia.com/2020/09/23/what-i-remember-what-i-know-the-life-of-a-high-arctic-exile/  

 

Heidi Bohaker.  Doodem and Council Fire: Anishinaabe Governance through Alliance.  University of Toronto Press (UTP).  https://utorontopress.com/ca/doodem-and-council-fire-2

 

Stephen R. Bown.  The Company: The Rise and Fall of the Hudson’s Bay Empire.  Doubleday Canada. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/610847/the-company-by-stephen-r-bown/9780385694070

 

Benjamin Perrin.  Overdose: Heartbreak and Hope in Canada’s Opioid Crisis. Viking.  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/605163/overdose-by-benjamin-perrin/9780735237865

 

The winner will be named later in May. The winner will be invited to give a talk accessible to the community, with details to 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 includes 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.

The J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s activities also support $10,000 in fellowships for MA students pursuing studies in international relations, politics, economics or history at the University of Manitoba; an essay prize for qualifying students; a prize for student and community newspaper writers; the J.W. Dafoe Political Studies Students’ Conference; and a number of colloquia on Canada in international affairs.

For questions or further information contact:  Dr. Andrea Rounce, Honorary Secretary

 

Full details on press release, here.

2020 Book Prize

Join us as we celebrate the 2020 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize winning book, The Good Fight: Marcel Cadieux and Canadian Diplomacy (UBC Press), written by Dr. Brendan Kelly. Presented by the J.W. Dafoe Foundation, and hosted by McNally Robinson Booksellers.

McNally Robinson event: https://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/event-18036/Brendan-Kelly-JW-Dafoe-Book-Prize-Online-Event/

Zoom registration link: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ksSKcJT9TnyuHDzL6CfskA

YouTube stream: https://youtu.be/jyME9tdyncg

https://www.facebook.com/events/806478343519738

Printable poster available here.

Book prize submissions now being accepted

DEADLINE has been extended this year to January 13, 2021

The John Wesley Dafoe Foundation is once again pleased to solicit submissions for its annual Book Prize. The 2021 Dafoe Book Prize, valued at $10,000.00, will be awarded to a publication with a 2020 imprint “. . . for distinguished writing by Canadians, or authors resident in Canada, that contributes to the understanding of Canada, Canadians, and/or Canada’s place in the world.” Co- or multiple authored books are eligible, but not edited books consisting of chapters from many different authors.

A nominal submission fee of $50 per entry is required. Publishers and individuals are encouraged to submit their entries (four copies for each nominee), with the appropriate submission fee in cheque form payable to the J.W. Dafoe Foundation and forwarded to Dr. Andrea Rounce, Honorary Secretary, The Dafoe Foundation, c/o 635 Oakenwald Avenue, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 1M3 by Wednesday January 13th, 2021. Please note that late entries for books published in later November and December will be accepted into the new year, as long as we are advised that they are coming.

Formal announcement of the short list happens in early March 2021, followed by the announcement of the winner in late March. We hope that the Prize will be formally awarded to the author(s) at the Annual J.W. Dafoe Book Prize dinner in late spring.

Full document available here.