The Grand Prize winner, to be announced September 25, will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and a writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
CBC Books, CBC’s online home for literary content, together with its partners the Canada Council for the Arts and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, have announced the finalists for the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
Five finalists have been chosen from more than 1,300 entries from across the country.
The Finalists are:
- Summer Ash by Rachel Foster (Vancouver)
- The Invisible Woman by Laura MacGregor (Waterloo, Ont.)
- The First Apartment by Jennifer McGuire (Owen Sound, Ont.)
- Cancer Stage Exit 4: A Memoir by Lena Palacios (Montreal)
- In Case I Die by Crystal Semaganis (Bear Island, Ont.)
The entries were selected from more than 1,300 submissions received from across Canada. The public can read the shortlisted entries on cbcbooks.ca. The winner of this year’s prize will be announced on Thursday, September 25.
The four other finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will be published on CBC Books.
The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize Jurors
The 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize jurors are Zoe Whittall, Danny Ramadan and Helen Knott.
- Zoe Whittall is an Ontario-based author, poet and screenwriter. She has received the Writers' Trust Dayne Ogilvie Award and has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Her memoir No Credit River was published in 2024. Danny Ramadan is a Vancouver-based Syrian-Canadian author and advocate for 2SLGBTQ+ refugees. Ramadan's latest memoir Crooked Teeth was a finalist in the nonfiction category of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards. Helen Knott is a Dane Zaa, Cree, Métis and mixed settler-descent writer from Prophet River First Nations in B.C. Knott’s memoir Becoming a Matriarch was a finalist in the nonfiction category of the 2024 Governor General's Literary Awards.
The Grand Prize winner will receive a cash prize of $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and will be published on the CBC Books website. The four other finalists will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts and will be published on CBC Books.
Visit cbcbooks.ca for the complete CBC Nonfiction Prize shortlist or for more information on the CBC Literary Prizes.
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About CBC Books
Home to Canada Reads, Bookends with Mattea Roach, The Next Chapter with Antonio Michael Downing, and the CBC Literary Prizes, CBC Books connects Canadians with books, encouraging a shared love of reading and writing. For book news, reading lists, author interviews and more, visit cbcbooks.ca
About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada’s national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada’s trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages: Dëne Sųłıné, Dene Kǝdǝ́, Dene Zhatıé, Eastern Cree, Dinjii Zhuʼ Ginjik, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun and Tłı̨chǫ. We also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, as well as both official languages, through Radio Canada International (RCI). We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.
About Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to "foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts."
The Council’s grants, services, initiatives, prizes, and payments contribute to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and support its presence across Canada and abroad. The Council’s investments foster greater engagement in the arts among Canadians and international audiences.
The Council’s Public Lending Right (PLR) program makes annual payments to creators whose works are held in Canadian public libraries.
About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From our home on Treaty 7 territory in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to society through cross-disciplinary learning opportunities, world-class performances, and public outreach.
