Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction

Given by Wilfrid Laurier University

109 Works 7,221 Books 311 Reviews ½ 3.9
The Edna Saebler Award is awarded annually to the year's best work of creative non-fiction. The award was established in 1991 by writer Edna Staebler and is administered by Wilfrid Laurier University.
Stages:
All, Winner (34), Shortlist (75)
Years:
All, 2023 (2), 2022 (1), 2021 (3), 2020 (3), 2019 (3), 2018 (3), 2017 (3), 2016 (3), 2015 (3), 2014 (3), 2013 (3), 2012 (3), 2011 (3), 2010 (3), 2009 (4), 2008 (4), 2007 (1), 2006 (5), 2005 (5), 2004 (5), 2003 (3), 2002 (5), 2001 (4), 2000 (5), 1999 (3), 1998 (5), 1997 (4), 1996 (4), 1995 (4), 1994 (1), 1993 (2), 1992 (5), 1991 (1)
Announced:
February 1: Shortlist2023 Recent

Winner 34

WorkYear
Thick Skin: Field Notes from a Sister in the Brotherhood by Hilary Peach2023
We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing by Jillian Horton2022
The Erratics by Vicki Laveau-Harvie2021
Chop Suey Nation: The Legion Cafe and Other Stories from Canada's Chinese Restaurants by Ann Hui2020
Lands of Lost Borders: A Journey on the Silk Road by Kate Harris2019
Life on the Ground Floor by James Maskalyk2018
Red Star Tattoo: My Life as a Girl Revolutionary by Sonja Larsen2017
The Prison Book Club by Ann Walmsley2016
Birding with Yeats: A Memoir by Lynn Thomson2015
The Oil Man and the Sea: A Modern Misadventure on the Pacific Tanker Route by Arno Kopecky2014
Into the Abyss by Carol Shaben2013
Hot Art: Chasing Thieves and Detectives Through the Secret World of Stolen Art by Joshua Knelman2012
Letters from the Lost: A Memoir of Discovery (Our Lives: Diary, Memoir, and Letters) by Helen Waldstein Wilkes2011
A Very Capable Life: The Autobiography of Zarah Petri (Our Lives: Diary, Memoir, and Letters) by John Leigh Walters2010
The Riverbones: Stumbling After Eden in the Jungles of Suriname by Andrew Westoll2009
Stardust by Bruce Serafin2008
Poets and Pahlevans: A Journey into the Heart of Iran by Marcello Di Cintio2007
After by Francis Chalifour2006
I'll tell you a secret : a memory of seven summers by Anne Coleman2005
Into the Blue by Andrea Curtis2004
The Last Island: A Naturalist's Sojourn on Triangle Island by Alison Watt2003
Rolling Home A Cross Canada Railroad Memoir by Tom Allen2002
Sacré Blues: An Unsentimental Journey Through Quebec by Taras Grescoe2001
Paper Shadows: A Memoir of a Past Lost and Found by Wayson Choy2000
Romancing Mary Jane: A Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower by Michael Poole1999
Mrs. King : The Life and Times of Isabel MacKenzie King by Charlotte Gray1998
Timely Death : what we can expect and what we need to know by Anne Mullens1997
The Guns of Normandy by George Blackburn1996
The Concubine's Children: The Story of a Chinese Family Living On Two Sides Of The Globe by Denise Chong1995
Sharing a Robin's Life by Linda Johns1994
The Only Snow in Havana by Elizabeth Hay1993
White Lies (For My Mother) by Liza Potvin1993
Nitassinan: The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland by Marie Wadden1992
Ginger: The Life and Death of Albert Goodwin by Susan Mayse1991

Shortlist 75

WorkYear
Half-Bads in White Regalia: A Memoir by Cody Caetano2023
Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts by Jessica J. Lee2021
Dead Mom Walking by Rachel Matlow2021
We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir by Samra Habib2020
In the Valleys of the Noble Beyond by John Zada2020
Mad Blood Stirring: The Inner Lives of Violent Men by Daemon Fairless2019
Heart Berries: A Memoir by Terese Marie Mailhot2019
Run, Hide, Repeat: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood by Pauline Dakin2018
A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land by Adam Shoalts2018
The Shoe Boy: A Trapline Memoir by Duncan McCue2017
The Elephants in My Backyard: A Memoir by Rajiv Surendra2017
That Lonely Section of Hell: The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away by Lorimer Shenher2016
The Right to Be Cold: One Woman's Story of Protecting Her Culture, the Arctic and the Whole Planet by Sheila Watt-Cloutier2016
Writing with Grace : a journey beyond Down syndrome by Judy McFarlane2015
Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto2015
The Memory of Water (Life Writing) by Allen Smutylo2014
Confessions of a Fairy's Daughter: Growing Up with a Gay Dad by Alison Wearing2014
Intolerable by Kamal Al-Solaylee2013
A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey from Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring by Nahlah Ayed2013
Most of Me: Surviving My Medical Meltdown by Robyn Michele Levy2012
The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll2012
Jew and Improved: How Choosing to Be Chosen Made Me a Better Man by Benjamin Errett2011
Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and Other Stories from Desolation Sound by Grant Lawrence2011
Lakeland: Ballad of a Freshwater Country by Allan Casey2010
Smiling Bears: A Zookeeper Explores the Behaviour and Emotional Life of Bears by Else Poulsen2010
The Darien Gap: Travels in the Rainforest of Panama by Martin Mitchinson2009
Lost by Cathy Ostlere2009
Burning Down the House: Fighting Fires and Losing Myself by Russell Wangersky2009
Baptism of Fire: The Second Battle of Ypres and the Forging of Canada, April 1915 by Nathan M. Greenfield2008
The Red Wall A Woman in the RCMP by Jane Hall2008
French kiss : Stephen Harper's blind date with Québec by Chantal Hébert2008
Loss Of Faith: How The Air India Bombers Got Away With Murder by Kim Bolan2006
Dragonslippers : this is what an abusive relationship looks like by Rosalind B. Penfold2006
Up North by Lisa Rochon2006
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed by John Vaillant2006
A Fool And Forty Acres: Conjuring A Vineyard Three Thousand Miles From Burgundy by Geoff Heinricks2005
Snow Bodies: One Woman's Life on the Streets by Elizabeth Hudson2005
The Molly Fire by Michael Mitchell2005
A Nurse's Story by Tilda Shalof2005
Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould by Kevin Bazzana2004
Rogue Diamonds: The Rush for Northern Riches on Dene Land by Ellen Bielawski2004
Discovering Eden: A Lifetime of Paddling the Arctic Rivers by Alex Hall2004
From Someplace Else: A Memoir by Ralph Osborne2004
Seldom by Dawn Rae Downton2003
Racing the White Silence: On the Trail of the Yukon Quest by Adam Killick2003
Under Sydenham Skies by Cornelia Johanna Baines2002
Waltzing the Tango by Gabrielle Bauer2002
The Last Guide : A Story of Fish and Love by Ron Corbett2002
Notes on a Beermat: Drinking and Why It's Necessary by Nicholas Pashley2002
River in a Dry Land: A Prairie Passage by Trevor Herriot2001
In for a Penny, in for a Pound: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Wireless Operator in Bomber Command by Howard Hewer2001
A Personal Calligraphy by Mary Pratt2001
The Water in Between by Kevin Patterson2000
Shadow Child: An Apprenticeship in Love and Loss by Beth Powning2000
Always & after: A Memoir by Ellen Stafford2000
Wardlife: The Apprenticeship of a Young Writer as a Hospital Clerk by Andrew Steinmetz2000
Too Many to Mourn by James Mahar1999
Charlevoix County, 1930 by Jori Smith1999
I was a teenage Katima-victim: A Canadian odyssey by Will Ferguson1998
Nahanni Remembered (Northwest Passage) by A. C. Lewis1998
And Peace Never Came (Life Writing) by Elisabeth M. Raab1998
God in the Classroom: The Controversial Issue of Religion in Canada's Schools by Lois Sweet1998
Starting from porcupine by William Aide1997
Stonyground : The Making of a Canadian Garden by Douglas Chambers1997
An Acre of Time: The Enduring Value of Place by Phil Jenkins1997
Women of the Klondike by Frances Backhouse1996
Stompin Tom by Stompin' Tom Connors1996
Artists, craftsmen, and technocrats: The dreams, realities and illusions of leadership by Patricia Pitcher1996
After the Smoke Clears by Jack Kuper1995
Picassos Woman a Breast Cancer Story by Rosalind MacPhee1995
Survival Gear by Rita Moir1995
Fields of Vision by Phil Jenkins1992
Rock-A-Bye Baby: A Death Behind Bars by Anne Kershaw1992
Invisible Power The Women Who Run Canada by Sherrill MacLaren1992
Street Kids: The Tragedy of Canada's Runaways by Marlene Webber1992

Descriptions

The Edna Saebler Award is awarded annually to the year's best work of creative non-fiction. The award was established in 1991 by writer Edna Staebler and is administered by Wilfrid Laurier University. (English, Member-written)
Presented by Wilfrid Laurier University (English, Member-written)

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