The winner of the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction will be named on Monday, February 8 at a gala luncheon in Toronto. The award honours the late Charles Taylor, a noted journalist and author who passed away in 1997. It was founded in 1998 and first awarded in 2000; past winners include Carol Shields and Rudy Wiebe.
The Afterword asked the four nominees to discuss their greatest influences, the state of long-form journalism, and Twitter.
Nominee: Daniel Poliquin, author of René Lévesque (Penguin Canada)
Q: In this era of brevity, where Twitter and text messages are the norm, what is the role of long-form journalism and creative non-fiction?A: There is still a huge future for thick books of non-fiction in our
era. The other speedier means of communication only give me more time
to read. Authors are better informed, too, and there is a greater
possibility for debate through those means. So, no, I feel no
competition from the new media.That said, describe your book in 140 characters.My book is about a dissident as Canada has known many: René
Lévesque, who like many other Canadians did not like the country of his
birth and wanted to emigrate but also take along with him his fellow
citizens from Quebec. To entice them to do so, he shunned the concept
of full independence and proposed instead the idea of
sovereignty-association, whereby Quebec would have become an
independent country but with economic ties to Canada. He started out
almost alone, but gathered momentum and support, finally to wrest power
away from the Liberals and install his party, the Parti québécois, in
Quebec City. He proposed sovereignty to Quebecers in a referendum --
because he was a firm believer in democracy -- and they rejected it. In
his quest for independence, he only enticed Pierre Trudeau to fight for
the patriation of our Constitution from England and the enshrining of a
Charter of rights and freedoms in our fundamental law. Lévesque walked
away from politics soon after and died. He is still is a revered figure
in Canada for his respect for democracy. In short, he was a dissident
who did well and caused no harm.  Name one non-fiction book that had an influence on your own career. Why that book?The most important book of non-fiction for me is Modris Eckstein's
Rites of Spring. He taught me to write in English and gave the impetus
to try non-fiction too.  What’s your dream non-fiction project? Why haven’t you written it yet?  I would like to write a history of a ideologies in Canada in order to show their permanence and their commonality. I am not yet sufficiently equipped to do so.