M.G. Vassanji among finalists for Balsillie Prize for Public Policy

TORONTO — Celebrated novelist M.G. Vassanji’s exploration of the emigrant experience is among the finalists for the $60,000 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.

The Writers’ Trust of Canada announced this year’s short list on Wednesday morning.

Vassanji, who has twice won the Giller Prize for his fiction writing, made the Balsillie Prize short list for “Nowhere, Exactly: On Identity and Belonging.”

Also vying for the award is Wendy H. Wong, for her book “We, The Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age,” which was also a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize.

Rounding out the short list are Gregor Craigie’s “Our Crumbling Foundation: How We Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis,” and Christopher Pollon’s exploration of resource extraction, “Pitfall: The Race to Mine the World’s Most Vulnerable Places.”

The prize will be handed out on Nov. 26, a week after the Writers’ Trust Awards.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 2, 2024.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press