RBC Taylor Prize to End
Canada's RBC Taylor Prize for Nonfiction will end after it names a final winner of the C$30,000 prize on March 2, 2020. The award, named for the late writer Charles Taylor, was established in 2000 to promote literary non-fiction, then seen as an underappreciated genre.
RBC Wealth Management, the award's trustee and primary sponsor, opted to end the prize after a study found that literary non-fiction was firmly established as "a major component of Canadian publishing.” The organization also sponsors a mentorship program for emerging nonfiction writers, which partners young authors with established writers. Presumably this too will end.
The 2019 winner of the RBC Taylor Prize for Nonfiction was Kate Harris for her book Lands of Lost Borders: Out of Bounds on the Silk Road, published by Knopf Canada. The longlist for the 2020 prize will be announced on December 4, with a shortlist coming in January.
