The Inaugural Balsillie Prize for Public Policy books went to Professor Dan Breznitz, who holds a chair in Innovation Studies, for Innovation in Real Places: Strategies for Prosperity in an Unforgiving World (Oxford University Press), which, the citation says, explains the difference between invention and innovation.
Ken Whyte, who attended the award presentation, reports the betting at the dinner was on either Gregor Craigie for his book on earthquakes or Andre Picard for his book on eldercare. But Breznitz's theme does sound closer to the interests of prize donor Jim Balsillie, who presided. Whyte's description also suggests the event managed to be a writing prize-giving ($60,000) with no pesky writers involved beyond those who were there ex officio.
The Governor General's Awards, for which I have a soft spot, were also announced recently, The nonfiction winner, This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart: A Memoir in Halves by Madhur Anand, is a family history, "an innovative, moving account of three generations of a South Asian Canadian family as they negotiate time, history, memory and loss"
