Author John Leigh Walters of Kitchener, Ontario, has been awarded the 2010 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction for his debut work, A Very Capable Life: The Autobiography of Zarah Petri (Athabasca University Press). The book is about Walters’ mother, a Hungarian immigrant to Canada.

Administered by Wilfrid Laurier University, the $10,000 award recognizes Canadian writers of a first or second work of creative non-fiction that includes a Canadian locale and/or significance. The award will be handed out during a reception at Wilfrid Laurier University on Nov. 10.