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Meet the 2024 Jurors!
The John Wesley Dafoe Foundation is pleased to introduce the jurors for 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize!
This year, Dale Barbour, Catherine Cook, and Gregory Mason will be selecting a longlist, shortlist, and winner, to celebrate forty years of the prize.
A ten-book longlist and five-book shortlist will be announced in the coming weeks, with the winner announced June 10. We are looking forward to celebrating these worthy titles!
In the meantime, here’s more about our jurors!
Dale Barbour grew up on a farm in Manitoba and worked in journalism and communications before getting hooked on history. He completed his PhD in history at the University of Toronto in 2018 and was the University of Winnipeg’s 2021 H. Sanford Riley Postdoctoral Fellow. Barbour’s scholarship pulls together gender, leisure, urban, and environmental history approaches to examine how people find and create recreation spaces. He is the author of two books: Winnipeg Beach: Leisure and Courtship in a Resort Town, 1900-1967, (University of Manitoba Press, 2011) and Undressed Toronto: From the Swimming Hole to Sunnyside, How a City Learned to Love the Beach, 1850–1935 (UMP, 2021).
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After more than 30 years with the University of Manitoba, Vice-President (Indigenous) Catherine Cook, MD, MSc, CCFP, FCFP retired in early 2024. As an advocate for Indigenous peoples’ health, Cook served as Vice-President of Population and Public Health at the Winnipeg Regional Health Organization (WRHA), provincial lead of Indigenous health at Shared Health Manitoba; as an associate professor of community health sciences; as vice-dean of Indigenous Health; and most recently as the inaugural vice-president (Indigenous) UM. One of the highlights of Cook’s career was the establishment of Ongomiizwin—Indigenous Institute of Health and Healing.
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Specializing in economic policy, the basic annual income, health economics, and Indigenous economics, Gregory Mason joined the Department of Economics at the University of Manitoba in 1974 . He received his PhD in Economics, Management Science and City Planning from the University of British Columbia in 1975. From 1981 to 1986, Greg directed the Institute for Social and Economic Research, where he was responsible for over $2.5 million of research, including the Mincome Manitoba experimental data. Recently he has written on the economics of COVID, telemedicine, electronic health records, the modern annuity, and urban reserves.
Now accepting submissions for 2024 book prize
The John Wesley Dafoe Foundation is once again pleased to receive submissions for its annual Book Prize. The 2024 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, now valued at $12,000, will be awarded to a publication with a 2023 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. To nominate a book(s), publishers and individuals:
- Submit four copies of each book nominated;
- Provide the appropriate submission fee ($50 per title) in cheque form payable to the J.W. Dafoe Foundation;
- Send books and fees to Dr. Andrea Rounce, Honorary Secretary, The J.W. Dafoe Foundation, c/o 20 Dysart Road, Room 442 University College Building, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2M8;
- Meet deadline of Friday December 15, 2023. Please note that late entries for books published in the later months of 2023 will be accepted into early 2024, as long as we are advised that they are coming; and
- Send an email with the publisher’s contact information (name/email/phone number) and the book title(s) being nominated to Dr. Andrea Rounce
- You will be notified when the title(s) submitted have been received.
Formal announcement of the short list will happen in spring 2024, followed by the announcement of the winner. The Prize will be formally awarded to the author(s) at the Annual J.W. Dafoe Book Prize dinner.
Questions about submission eligibility or process can be sent to Dr. Andrea Rounce at andrea(dot)rounce(at)umanitoba(dot)ca
2023 Book Prize Winner Announced: Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)
Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) win the $12,000
J.W. Dafoe Book Prize for 2023
Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) have won the 2023 John Wesley Dafoe Book Prize for Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation published by HarperCollins Publishing Ltd.
Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)’s work is the unanimous choice of this year’s jury. Jury Chair Mary Agnes Welch describes the winning book this way: “Valley of the Birdtail is the most clear-eyed and compassionate book on the legacy of Indigenous inequality I’ve read. It’s maddening in parts, wryly funny in other parts, and its vivid characters – prairie Canadians will recognize them all – bring the complex national issue of white supremacy right down to John Dafoe’s backyard.”
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. Dale Barbour, Dr. Gregory Mason, and Ms. Mary Agnes Welch, for their service to the J.W. Dafoe Foundation and their selection of Valley of the Birdtail for the 2023 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize.
Dafoe Book Prize Shortlist 2023
Five books drawn from a field of forty-four are shortlisted for the 2023 John W. Dafoe Book Prize:
Douglas Hunter. Jackson’s Wars: A.Y. Jackson, the Birth of the Group of Seven, and the Great War. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
https://www.mqup.ca/jackson-s-wars-products-9780228010760.php
Joan Scottie, Warren Bernauer, and Jack Hicks. I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of Colonialism, Uranium Mining, and Inuit Resistance. University of Manitoba Press.
https://uofmpress.ca/books/detail/i-will-live-for-both-of-us
Merilyn Simonds. Woman, Watching: Louise de Kiriline Lawrence and the Songbirds of Pimisi Bay. ECW Press.
https://ecwpress.com/products/woman-watching
Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson. Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation. Harper Collins Publishers.
https://www.harpercollins.ca/9781443466301/valley-of-the-birdtail/
David A. Wilson. Canadian Spy Story: Irish Revolutionaries and the Secret Police. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
https://www.mqup.ca/canadian-spy-story-products-9780228011170.php
The winner will be named in late April and invited to give a talk in Winnipeg to the community in Fall 2023. Details will follow.
The John W. Dafoe Book Prize memorializes John Wesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian editors of the 20th century. A value of $12,000, 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. 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, 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 56-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.
An Evening with Donald B. Smith, the Winner of the 2022 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize
Find a PDF of the event poster here.
Tuesday, January 17, 7:00pm
Hanley Hall, St. Paul’s College, University of Manitoba
Join us as we celebrate the 2022 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize winning book Seen But Not Seen: Influential Canadians and the First Nations from the 1840s to Today, written by Dr. Donald B. Smith (University of Toronto Press).
Seen but Not Seen explores the history of Indigenous marginalization and why non-Indigenous Canadians failed to recognize Indigenous societies and cultures as worthy of respect. Dr. Smith will begin the conversation with a presentation on his book, highlighting the experience of Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, along with Lance’s connection to Winnipeg and to the University of Manitoba. There will be time for questions and discussion with the audience.
Refreshments will be served. Masks are required for attendance.
Free Parking is available after 4:30pm in Lot Q (across from St. Paul’s College).
Presented by the John W. Dafoe Foundation (dafoefoundation.ca)
Dafoe Writing Prize 2022
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. This year’s award recognizes papers written during the academic year of 2021-22, or between September 2021 and June 2022.
To apply for the J.W. Dafoe Writing Award, you must submit:
- your paper by December 5, 2022 to the Secretary of the J.W. Dafoe Foundation
(address below), and
- the name of the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the revisions to your paper. Papers submitted without the name of a faculty member 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 early 2023.
J.W. Dafoe Book Prize Accepting Submissions for 2023 Prize
The John Wesley Dafoe Foundation is once again pleased to receive submissions for its annual Book Prize. The 2023 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, now valued at $12,000.00, will be awarded to a publication with a 2022 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.
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.
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.