Today the Cundill Prize in History announced the three -- all female -- finalists for its 2021 award:
- Marie Favereau, The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World
- Rebecca Clifford, Survivors: Children's Lives after the Holocaust
- Marjoleine Kars, Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast.
Or as announcement host Dan Snow put it, "Eurasian empires, the holocaust, and slavery -- what else are we talking about these days?"
The jury for the prize -- Michael Ignatieff (chair), Eric Foner, Henrietta Harrison, Sunil Khilnani, and Jennifer L Morgan -- will have a decision on December 2. Not too long afterwards I'll have a review of the finalists in the Literary Review of Canada.
Gotta say: the "short" list had some pretty interesting titles, too.
Update, October 22: The Cundill Prize seemed unaware or uninterested the other day, but one of its nominees, Rebecca Clifford, has solid Canadian connections. Raised in Kingston, she graduated from Queen's University and taught English in Japan and worked for Foreign Affairs in China before winning a doctoral scholarship to Oxford University. She now teaches at a British university.
