Here are the finalists for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction.

The Governor General’s Literary Awards are one of Canada’s oldest and most prestigious literary prizes. 

The prizes, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, are awarded in seven English-language categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young people’s literature — text, young people’s literature — illustration, drama and French-to-English translation. Seven French-language awards are also given out in the same categories. 

The Canada Council for the Arts is a partner of the CBC Literary Prizes. The� 2024 CBC Short Story Prize is currently open for submissions.

Each winner will receive $25,000. The winners will be announced on Nov. 8, 2023.

The nonfiction category was assessed by KatłĮà Lafferty, Lorri Neilsen Glenn and Rinaldo Walcott.

You can see the finalists in all seven categories here.

Get to know the nonfiction finalists below.

Gendered Islamophobia describes Monia Mazigh’s experiences as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman who has lived most of her life in Quebec. It discusses stereotypes that plague Muslim women and how Islamophobia can be gendered. 

Monia Mazigh was born and raised in Tunisia and immigrated to Canada in 1991. Her book, Hope and Despair, tells the story of her husband’s deportation to Syria where he was tortured and held without charge for over a year. She is also the author of the novels Mirrors and Mirages and Hope Has Two Daughters.

Invisible Boy is a memoir and Black coming-of-age narrative that follows Harrison Mooney as he reconsiders his history after years of internalized anti-Blackness. At a young age, he was adopted into a white evangelical family and was made to participate in revivalist church activities, while being consistently mocked for his identity. 

Based in Vancouver, Harrison Mooney is a writer and journalist. He has worked for the Vancouver Sun for nearly a decade as a reporter, an editor and a columnist. His writing has also appeared in the National Post, the Guardian, Yahoo and Maclean’s. 

Message in a Bottle is a story about the central threat to marine life diversity: ocean plastic. In this book, biologist and writer Holly Hogan brings marine creatures to life as she recounts experiences on her 30 years of ocean travel. 

Holly Hogan is an author and wildlife biologist who lives in St. John’s. 

In her memoir Unbroken, Angela Sterritt shares her story from navigating life on the streets to becoming an award-winning journalist. As a teenager, she wrote in her notebook to survive. Now, she reports on cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada, showing how colonialism and racism create a society where Indigenous people are devalued. Unbroken is a story about courage and strength against all odds.

Angela Sterritt is a journalist, writer and artist. She has previously worked as a host and reporter with CBC Vancouver. Sterritt is a member of the Gitxsan Nation and lives on Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh territories in Vancouver. Unbroken is also shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for nonfiction.

After Kyo Maclear’s father dies, a DNA test shows that she is not biologically related to the father that raised her. Maclear embarks on a journey to unravel the family mystery and uncover the story of her biological father, raising questions about kinship and what it means to be family in Unearthing.

Maclear is an essayist, novelist and children’s author. Her books have been translated into 15 languages, won a Governor General’s Literary Award and been nominated for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, among others. Her memoir Birds Art Life was a finalist for the 2017 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and won the 2018 Trillium Book Award.