Donner Book Prize Call For Submissions And Prize Fund Increase
Allan Gotlieb, Chairman of the Donner Canadian Foundation, today announced that the winner of the Donner Book Prize, the award for best book on public policy by a Canadian, will now receive $50,000 (up from $35,000). The other shortlisted titles will now take home $7,500 (up from $5,000). Mr. Gotlieb also announced the official Call for Submissions and Jury for the fourteenth annual Donner Prize.
“The increase in prize monies reinforces our ongoing commitment to encouraging and celebrating excellence in public policy writing by Canadians, on topics of great importance to Canadians,” said Gotlieb. “The Donner Canadian Foundation has put the call out to publishers to send us this year’s best public policy books by Canadian writers.”
The Donner Canadian Foundation, one of Canada’s largest foundations, created the prize to encourage increased research on public policy in Canada and to promote the discussion of policy issues in the public arena. In giving this annual award, the Foundation seeks not only to broaden policy debate, but also increase general awareness of the importance of policy discourse. The 2010 prize went to Doug Saunders for Arrival City. “Winning the Donner Prize was a huge honour for Arrival City, but even more than that, the recognition and attention that come with the prize have given the book a new life and a far larger audience,” said Saunders.
Books submitted for the prize should focus on public policy issues – be they regional, national, or international – that have clear implications and relevance for Canada, for example: regulatory and legal reform, public finance, the environment, urban affairs, health care, and education reform. Submissions must be written by Canadian citizens, but they may be published by non-Canadian publishing houses, so long as the books have implications for Canada. For the 2011 prize, books that are written by Canadians in either English or French, between January 1, and December 31, 2011, are eligible. See Donner Book Prize for complete rules regarding eligibility and submission procedures.
Mr. Gotlieb also announced this year’s prize Jury. “It is my pleasure to announce that the Honourable Anne McLellan will return as this year’s Jury chair.” McLellan joined Bennett Jones LLP after a distinguished career in federal politics, where she served four terms as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre from 1993-2006. She is former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, Minister of Health, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and Minister of Natural Resources and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians.
Also returning to the jury are Marcel Boyer, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the Université de Montréal; Wendy Dobson, Professor and Co-director of the Institute for International Business in the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management; Kevin Lynch, Vice-Chair, BMO Financial Group; and Denis Stairs, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Dalhousie University.
The $35,000 Donner Prize for 2010 was awarded to Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World by Doug Saunders (Knopf Canada). The $5,000 shortlisted titles were: Perverse Cities: Hidden Subsidies, Wonky Policy and Urban Sprawl by Pamela Blais (UBC Press), Beyond The Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights by Tom Flanagan, Christopher Alcantara and André Le Dressay, with forward by C.T. (Manny) Jules (McGill-Queen’s University Press), Le Chum: Une Tragedie Quebecoise by Robert Lacroix and Louis Maheu (Les Éditions du Boréal), and Oka: A Political Crisis and Its Legacy by Harry Swain (Douglas & McIntyre).
The deadline for submissions for this year’s prize is November 30. The shortlist will be announced in late March 2012, and the winner will be proclaimed at a gala dinner in Toronto in May 2012.
