M.G.
Vassanji
M.G. Vassanji has written novels, short stories, travel memoirs, and a biography of Mordecai Richler. He is a two-time winner of the Giller Prize and a recipient of a Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction, the Harbourfront Festival Prize, the Commonwealth First Book Prize, and the Bressani Prize. In 2007, Vassanji was a finalist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and CBC’s Canada Reads. He was born in Kenya, raised in Tanzania, attended university in the United States, and lives in Toronto.
Award History
Jury Citation
“Nowhere, Exactly is a rich gift to Canadians — a thoughtful, meditative, and nuanced exploration of identity that spurs deep thinking on public policy. How do we recognize and reconcile difference with the need for core civic commonalities? What does it mean to come from somewhere else, as so many Canadians do? What of our past do we leave behind when we arrive in a new land? What of our Canadian future do we incorporate into our identity? In beautiful prose, Vassanji takes us back to first principles on mosaics and multiculturalism — on how people and place come together, forging the new from the old. Readers will benefit from Vassanji’s contemplations, and public policy practitioners would be wise to explore the concept of identity beyond slogans to help build a better Canada for all.” — 2024 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy Jury (Samantha Nutt, Taki Sarantakis, and Scott Young)
