Sheila Watt-Cloutier

The B.C. Achievement Foundation has revealed the shortlist for the 12th annual B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-fiction.

Out of a 10-person longlist, culled from 137 submissions by 35 Canadian publishers, the jury – Simon Fraser University chancellor Anne Giardini, Toronto Star columnist Richard Gwyn, and Vancouver Writers Festival artistic director Hal Wake – selected the following finalists:

• John Ibbitson, Stephen Harper (Signal Editions/McClelland & Stewart)
• Rosemary Sullivan, Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva (HarperCollins Canada)
• Emily Urquhart, Beyond the Pale: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes (HarperCollins)
• Sheila Watt-Cloutier, The Right to be Cold: One Woman’s Story of Protecting her Culture, the Arctic, and the Whole Planet (Allen Lane Canada)

Each shortlisted author will receive $5,000. The winner of the $40,000 prize will be recognized at a ceremony in Vancouver on Feb. 4.