Toronto Book Awards

The Toronto Book Awards are Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the city of Toronto to the author of the year's best fiction or non-fiction book or books "that are evocative of Toronto".[1]

Each author shortlisted for the award receives $1,000, and the winner or winners receive the balance of $15,000.

The award has frequently gone to multiple winners. 1987 was the first time in the history of the award that only a single winner was named.

Winners

Year Winner Nominated
1974 Blue ribbon William Kurelek, O Toronto
Blue ribbon Desmond Morton, Mayor Howland
Blue ribbon Richard B. Wright, In the Middle of a Life
  • Sandra Budden and Joseph Ernst, The Movable Airport
  • Austin Clarke, Storm of Fortune
  • Michael Filey, Richard Howard and Helmut Weyerstrahs, Passengers Must Not Ride on Fender
  • Hugh Hood, The Governor's Bridge Is Closed
  • George Jonas, Cities
1975 Blue ribbon Claude Bissell, Halfway up Parnassus
Blue ribbon The Labour History Collective, Women at Work
Blue ribbon Loren Lind, The Learning Machine
  • Max Braithwaite, Sick Kids
  • Juan Butler, Canadian Healing Oil
  • Jon Caulfield, The Tiny Perfect Mayor
  • Dennis Lee, Alligator Pie - Nicholas Knock
  • Harold Town, Albert Franck: His Life, Times and Work
1976 Blue ribbon Robert F. Harney and Harold Troper, Immigrants: A Portrait of the Urban Experience 1890-1930
Blue ribbon Hugh Hood, The Swing in the Garden
  • Jack Batten, The Leafs in Autumn
  • Morley Callaghan, A Fine and Private Place
  • Austin Clarke, The Bigger Light
  • Hans Jewinski, Poet Cop
  • Harry Pollock, Gabriel
  • Ian Wallace and Angela Wood, The Sandwich
1977 Blue ribbon Margaret Atwood, Lady Oracle
Blue ribbon Margaret Gibson, The Butterfly Ward
1978 Blue ribbon Christopher Armstrong and H.V. Nelles, The Revenge of the Methodist Bicycle Company
Blue ribbon Timothy Findley, The Wars
1979 Blue ribbon Michael Bliss, A Canadian Millionaire
Blue ribbon William Dendy, Lost Toronto
Blue ribbon John Morgan Gray, Fun Tomorrow
  • Morley Callaghan, No Man's Meat and The Enchanted Pimp
  • Paul Duval, The Tangled Garden
  • Marian Engel, The Glassy Sea
  • James Lorimer, The Developers
  • Peter Mellen, Landmarks of Canadian Art
  • David Lewis Stein, City Boys
1980 Blue ribbon Raymond Souster, Hanging In
Blue ribbon Stephen A. Speisman, The Jews of Toronto: A History to 1937
  • Eric Arthur, From Front Street to Queen's Park: The Story of Ontario's Parliament Buildings
  • Margaret Atwood, Life Before Man
  • Shirley Faessler, Everything in the Window
  • Hugh Hood, Reservoir Ravine
  • Richard B. Howard, Upper Canada College 1928-1979: Colbourne's Legacy
  • Blair G. Laing, Memoirs of an Art Dealer
1981 Blue ribbon Timothy Colton, Big Daddy: Frederick G. Gardiner and the Building of Metropolitan Toronto
Blue ribbon Mary Larratt Smith, Young Mr. Smith in Upper Canada
Blue ribbon Helen Weinzweig, Basic Black with Pearls
  • Gregory S. Kealey, Toronto Workers Respond to Industrial Capitalism, 1867-1892
  • John Lownsbrough, The Privileged Few: The Grange & Its People in Nineteenth Century Toronto
  • Austin Seton Thompson, Jarvis Street: A Story of Triumph and Tragedy
  • Richard B. Wright, Final Things
1982 Blue ribbon Claude Bissell, The Young Vincent Massey
Blue ribbon Marian Engel, Lunatic Villas
1983 Blue ribbon Michael Bliss, The Discovery of Insulin
Blue ribbon Lucy Booth Martyn, The Face of Early Toronto: An Archival Record 1803-1936
  • Larry Partridge, The Witts
  • Clara Thomas and John Lennox, William Arthur Deacon: A Canadian Literary Life
  • Tim Wynne-Jones, The Knot
1984 Blue ribbon Edith G. Firth, Toronto in Art
Blue ribbon Gerald Killan, David Boyle: From Artisan to Archaeologist
Blue ribbon Eric Wright, The Night the Gods Smiled

The award's website does not currently provide the shortlist for 1984, listing only the winners.

1985 Blue ribbon Warabe Aska, Who Goes to the Park
Blue ribbon J.M.S. Careless, Toronto to 1918
Blue ribbon Josef Skvorecky, The Engineer of Human Souls
  • Patrick Brode, Sir John Beverley Robinson
  • Margaret and Merlyn McKelvey, Toronto: Carved in Stone
  • David G. Pitt, E.J. Pratt: The Truant Years 1882-1927
  • Victor L. Russell, Forging a Consensus
1986 Blue ribbon Morley Callaghan, Our Lady of the Snows
Blue ribbon Robertson Davies, What's Bred in the Bone
  • Neil Bissoondath, Digging Up the Mountains
  • Rosemary Donegan, Spadina Avenue
  • James Lemon, Toronto Since 1918: An Illustrated History
  • Patricia McHugh, Toronto Architecture: A City Guide
1987 Blue ribbon William Dendy and William Kilbourn, Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons and History
  • John Coldwell Adams, Sir Charles God Damn: The Life of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts
  • June Callwood, Twelve Weeks in Spring
  • Lovat Dickson, The Museum Makers: The Story of the Royal Ontario Museum
  • Michael Filey, Not a One-Horse Town: 125 Years of Toronto and Its Streetcars
  • Martin O'Malley, Hospital: Life and Death in a Major Medical Centre
1988 Blue ribbon Michael Ondaatje, In the Skin of a Lion
  • Joan Hollobon, The Lion's Tale: A History of the Wellesley Hospital, 1912-1978
  • Cyril H. Levitt and William Shaffir, The Riot at Christie Pits
  • Tom MacDonnell, Never Let Go: The Tragedy of Kristy McFarlane
  • Anna Porter, Mortal Sins
1989 Blue ribbon Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye
  • Shirley Faessler, A Basket of Apples
  • Robert Fulford, Best Seat in the House
  • Alison Gordon, The Dead Pull Hitter
  • Michael Kluckner, Toronto The Way It Was
  • Rick Salutin, A Man of Little Faith
  • Paul Stuewe, The Storm Below: The Turbulent Life and Times of Hugh Garner
1990 Blue ribbon Hilary Russell, Double Take: The Story of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres
Blue ribbon Guy Vanderhaeghe, Homesick
1991 Blue ribbon Cary Fagan and Robert MacDonald, eds., Streets of Attitude: Toronto Stories
  • Cary Fagan, City Hall and Mrs. God
  • Mary Jo Leddy, Say to the Darkness, We Beg to Differ
  • Claire MacKay and Johnny Wales, The Toronto Story
  • Jocko Thomas, From Police Headquarters
  • Morley Torgov, St. Farb's Day
  • Dan Yashinsky, Tales for an Unknown City
1992 Blue ribbon Katherine Govier, Hearts of Flame
1993 Blue ribbon Carole Corbeil, Voice-Over
Blue ribbon David Donnell, China Blues
  • Paul Donovan, Paint Cans
  • Paul Kropp, Ellen/Elena/Luna
  • Don Ritchie, North Toronto
1994 Blue ribbon Timothy Findley, Headhunter
1995 Blue ribbon Ezra Schabas, Sir Ernest MacMillan: The Importance of Being Canadian
  • Jack Batten, The Leafs: An Anecdotal History of the Toronto Maple Leafs
  • Cary Fagan, The Animals' Waltz
  • Eric Wright, Moodie's Tale
1996 Blue ribbon Rosemary Sullivan, Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen
1997 Blue ribbon Anne Michaels, Fugitive Pieces
1998 Blue ribbon Helen Humphreys, Leaving Earth
1999 Blue ribbon Richard Outram, Benedict Abroad
2000 Blue ribbon Camilla Gibb, Mouthing the Words
  • Jennifer Duncan, Sanctuary and Other Stories
  • Greg Gatenby, Toronto - A Literary Guide
  • Conrad E. Heidenreich, Betty I. Roots and Donald A. Chant, Special Places: The Changing Ecosystems of the Toronto Region
  • Russell Smith, Young Men
2001 Blue ribbon A.B. McKillop, The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G. Wells and the Mystery of the Purloined Past
2002 Blue ribbon Sarah Dearing, Courage My Love
  • Douglas Bell, Run Over: A Boy, His Mother and An Accident
  • Jane Lind, Joyce Wieland: Artist on Fire
  • Erin Mouré, Sheep's Vigil by a Fervent Person
  • Michael Redhill, Martin Sloane
  • Elizabeth Ruth, Ten Good Seconds of Silence
2003 Blue ribbon Joe Fiorito, The Song Beneath the Ice
2004 Blue ribbon Kevin Bazzana, Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould
Blue ribbon Kate Taylor, Mme. Proust and the Kosher Kitchen
2005 Blue ribbon David Bezmozgis, Natasha and Other Stories
2006 Blue ribbon Dionne Brand, What We All Long For
  • Howard Akler, The City Man
  • Stephen Marche, Raymond and Hannah
  • Jason McBride and Alana Wilcox, eds., uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto
  • M.G. Vassanji, When She Was Queen
2007 Blue ribbon Michael Redhill, Consolation
2008 Blue ribbon Glen Downie, Loyalty Management
2009 Blue ribbon Austin Clarke, More
  • Anthony De Sa, Barnacle Love
  • Maggie Helwig, Girls Fall Down
  • Mark Osbaldeston, Unbuilt Toronto
  • Charles Wilkins, In the Land of Long Fingernails
2010 Blue ribbon Mark Sinnett, The Carnivore
2011 Blue ribbon Rabindranath Maharaj, The Amazing Absorbing Boy
2012 Blue ribbon Andrew J. Borkowski, Copernicus Avenue
2013 Blue ribbon Kamal Al-Solaylee, Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes[2]
  • Patrick Cummins and Shawn Micallef, Full Frontal T.O.
  • Kevin Irie, Viewing Tom Thomson, A Minority Report
  • Aga Maksimowska, Giant
  • Katrina Onstad, Everybody Has Everything
2014 Blue ribbon Charlotte Gray, The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Country
  • Anthony De Sa, Kicking the Sky
  • Carrianne K. Y. Leung, The Wondrous Woo
  • Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis, The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement
  • Shyam Selvadurai, The Hungry Ghosts

References

  1. "About the Toronto Book Awards". City of Toronto, official Web site. Retrieved 2009-06-19.
  2. "Kamal Al-Solaylee wins Toronto Book Award". Toronto Star, October 9, 2013.

External links