Stories of environmental development – and its consequences – dominate the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. The $25,000 prize, presented by the Writers’ Trust, celebrates literary non-fiction of relevance to Canadian politics.

Three of the five shortlisted works looked deeper into the environmental impact of Canadian industries: logging in Harley Rustad’s Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees (House of Anansi Press), oil in Jacques Poitras’s Pipe Dreams: The Fight for Canada’s Energy Future (Viking Canada), and hydroelectricity in Sarah Cox’s Breaching the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand against Big Hydro (On Point Press).

The other shortlisted works brought new perspectives to prevalent social issues: toxic masculinity in Rachel Giese’s Boys: What It Means to Become a Man and the struggles of refugees in Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung’s Homes: A Refugee Story.

The prize will be presented at Politics and the Pen, the annual gala in Ottawa that raises funds for the Writers’ Trust on May 15. To date, the event has raised more than $3.7 million for the Writers’ Trust.

The shortlist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize follows.

• Homes: A Refugee Story, Abu Bakr al Rabeeah and Winnie Yeung (Freehand Books)
• Breaching the Peace: The Site C Dam and a Valley’s Stand against Big Hydro, Sarah Cox (On Point Press)
• Boys: What It Means to Become a Man, Rachel Giese (Patrick Crean Editions)
• Pipe Dreams: The Fight for Canada’s Energy Future, Jacques Poitras (Viking Canada)
• Big Lonely Doug: The Story of One of Canada’s Last Great Trees, Harley Rustad (House of Anansi Press)