Richard Kelly Kemick, Robert Moor (Remi Morawski), Trina Moyles (Mark Kelly), Julian Brave NoiseCat (Emilly Kassie 2025), Dan Werb (Joe Fuda).

Five writers have been named finalists for the 2026 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

The $75,000 award, now in its 16th year, recognizes excellence in literary nonfiction and is supported by the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation. This is the fourth year that the purse for the prize is $75,000, a bump from its previous $60,000 reward. Finalists receive $5,000.

A jury comprised of writers Katherine Ashenburg, Debra Thompson, and Joshua Whitehead chose this year’s finalists from 113 submitted titles from 70 publishing imprints.

The finalists are:

• Decadence by Richard Kelly Kemick (Biblioasis)
• In Trees: An Exploration by Robert Moor (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Black Bear: A Story of Siblinghood and Survival by Trina Moyles (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
• We Survived the Night: An Indigenous Reckoning by Julian Brave NoiseCat (Random House Canada)
• Our Wild Familiars: How Animals Are Adapting to Cities and Reshaping the Natural World by Dan Werb (Knopf Canada/PRHC)

The winner will be announced at the annual Writers’ Trust Awards, to be held in Toronto on Nov. 10.

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