The Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction is given annually for excellence in the category of literary nonfiction, which includes essays, history, biography, memoir, commentary, and criticism. The winning book demonstrates a distinctive voice as well as a persuasive and compelling command of tone, narrative, style, and technique. This award has been sponsored by The Hon. Hilary M. Weston since 2011 and is now funded by The Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation. Beginning in 2023, the prize purse has increased from $60,000 to $75,000.
2024 Winner
Martha Baillie
There Is No Blue
Coach House Books
Jury Citation
“In this exquisitely written memoir, Baillie delves into the fine despair coating family relationships, calling into question how clearly we see those we live most closely to. Through the art of the essay, she explores her mother’s passing, her father’s protective role, and the long-term consequences of living with a sister who has schizophrenia. Here are the age-old challenges of loving someone who doesn’t understand us, the doomed attempts to save someone from themselves, and the constant reckoning with the millions of ways family imprints itself on us. An elegy to the beautiful fight to keep a family together and an ode to the devastating loss when things fall apart, There Is No Blue rattles the bones of what it is to be in imperfect relationships with the people we are tied to by birth and blood.”—2024 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction jury (Annahid Dashtgard, Taylor Lambert and Christina Sharpe)
2024 Finalists
Jury
A jury composed of Canadian nonfiction writers Annahid Dashtgard, Taylor Lambert, and Christina Sharpe selected this year’s shortlist. In total, 117 titles were submitted by 74 publishing imprints.
