Astra
Taylor
Astra Taylor is a writer, activist, documentarian, and co-founder of the Debt Collective. She is the author of The People’s Platform, which won the American Book Award, and Democracy May Not Exist But We'll Miss It When It is Gone, among other titles. Taylor regularly writes for publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times, she is an advisor to Lux Magazine, and she sits on the editorial board of Hammer & Hope. Taylor toured with the band Neutral Milk Hotel and was the 2023 CBC Massey Lecturer. Born in Winnipeg and raised in Athens, Georgia, she currently lives in New York City.
Award History
2024 Finalist
Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writingfor The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall Apart
Jury Citation
“Astra Taylor argues that while insecurity is central to the human condition, we have built a society that compounds and exacerbates that reality, and one where elites benefit from inequitable suffering. By intertwining her own story with the wisdom of poets and philosophers, Taylor encourages interconnectedness and shared vulnerability to reimagine our overwhelmed society into a more caring one. This is a helpful, hopeful book written at a time fraught with unease and negativity. The Age of Insecurity provides important perspectives on how we got here and shards of light that might just lead us out of this anxious place.”
—2024 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize Jury (Joanna Chiu, Dale Eisler, and Kathleen Wynne)
