John English's Trudeau biography Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968 and Karolyn Smardz Frost's I've Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad are the history nominees in this year's Governor-General's Award in non-fiction. English's Trudeau would be the big authoritative entry and Glory Land a small tale meticulously told; both good books.
Pretty solid jury, too: Michael Bliss, Afua Cooper, Maggie Siggins. I'd have some faith in the judgment in that team.
Hmm, what else might have been there among history titles?
Also nominated on an eclectic list: Rodrigo Bascunan and Christian Pearce for Enter the Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent; the Globe and Mail's Stephanie Nolen for 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa; and Bridget Stutchbury for Silence of the Songbirds: How We Are Losing the World's Songbirds and What We Can Do to Save Them.
They put the prize money up to $25,000. Jeez, it was $5000 when I won - and not much publicity either (so I'm making up for it).
