2009 Winners

ANDREW STEINMETZ

Eva’s Threepenny Theatre (Gaspereau Press)

In an unusual blend of fiction and memoir, Andrew Steinmetz tells the story of this great-Aunt Eva who performed in the first workshop production of Bertolt Brecht's masterpiece The Threepenny Opera, in 1928. Steinmetz takes the story back to Eva's childhood in Germany, with her invalid mother and domineering siblings, the pronouncement of the family's Jewish origins, and her escape to Canada.

Jury Statement

“A compelling and unique blend of fiction and memoir, Eva’s Threepenny Theatre explores the life of Steinmetz’s great-aunt Eva through her tumultuous childhood in Germany before the Second World War, to her involvement in Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, to her life in post-war Berlin and her old age in Canada. In an extraordinary feat of form echoing content, the story is told in shards, like glass shattered during Kristellnacht. At times devastating and poignant, at times hilarious, this book is brilliant and profound.”

Andrew Steinmetz is the author of a memoir, Wardlife: The Apprenticeship of a Young Writer as a Hospital Clerk and two collections of poetry, Histories and Hurt Thyself. Steinmetz's work has been shortlisted for the Edna Staebler Award, the Quebec Writers Federation (QWF) First Book Award, the Mavis Gallant Prize for non-fiction, and the A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry. Steinmetz is the editor of Esplanade Books, the fiction imprint at Véhicule Press. Eva's Threepenny Theatre has been short-listed for the 2009 Writers' Trust Award. Currently he is recording a song cycle called Money Is Also a Kind of Music, inspired by recent poetry collections from Carmine Starnino (This Way Out) and Jason Guriel (Pure Product).

KERRY PITHER

Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror (Penguin Group Canada)

Dark Days recounts how a Canadian national security investigation went terribly wrong, culminating in the overseas detention and torture of four Canadian Muslim men. It chronicles the activities of the investigation itself, and the experiences of those it targeted—Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki, Maher Arar and Muayyed Nureddin. Two inquiries have since effectively cleared their names, and corroborate Pither’s account of Canadian complicity in their brutal torture.

Jury Statement:

“Dark Days is a compelling and powerful book about an important subject — racism in Canada and the clandestine activities of the RCMP and CSIS. The book tells the story of four Muslim Canadians — Maher Arar, Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin — all “terror suspects” tortured in Middle Eastern prisons before being released without charge. Writing with passion and empathy yet admirable restraint, Kerry Pither leaves the reader with a vivid, detailed and disturbing picture of what we do in the name of security.”

A passionate human rights advocate, Ottawa’s Kerry Pither has worked on a wide range of national and international issues over the last 20 years. She played a pivotal role in the campaign for Maher Arar’s release from Syrian detention, and in the campaign for answers about Canadian complicity in torture abroad.