Omar El Akkad and Miriam Toews are among the five writers shortlisted for the 2025 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

The $75,000 award, now in its 15th year, recognizes excellence in literary nonfiction and is supported by the Hilary and Galen Weston Foundation. This is the third year that the purse for the prize is $75,000, a bump from its previous $60,000 reward. Finalists receive $5,000.

A jury made up of writers Matthew R. Morris, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, and Niigaan Sinclair selected the five shortlisted books from 101 titles submitted by 62 publishing imprints.

The shortlisted books are:

• One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)
•  The Snag: A Mother, A Forest, and Wild Grief by Tessa McWatt (Random House Canada/PRHC)
• The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse: A Memoir by Vinh Nguyen (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Alchemy by Knopf Canada/PRHC)
• A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews (Knopf Canada)

The winner of this year’s award will be announced at the Writers’ Trust Awards in Toronto on November 13.