Five books have been nominated for the Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

The annual $40,000 prize, now in its 26th year, recognizes literary nonfiction about a political subject that is relevant to Canadian readers.

Four of the five books on this year’s shortlist are published by independent Canadian publishers.

A jury comprised of past prize winners Norma Dunning, Chantal Hébert, and Paul Wells read 51 books submitted by 33 publishing imprints to select the finalists.

The shortlisted books are:

• On Oil by Don Gillmor (Biblioasis)
• Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community by Maggie Helwig (Coach House Books)
• On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent by Brian Stewart (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy by Ira Wells (Biblioasis)
• Women Who Woke up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women’s Rights in Canada by Karin Wells (Second Story Press)

The winner of this year’s prize will be announced in Ottawa at the Politics and the Pen gala on April 29.