Reconciliation, the fight against Big Tech, and colonial systems are among the topics explored by the five books shortlisted for the 2023 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

The $25,000 prize, awarded annually by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, honours a book of literary merit that has the potential to shape Canadians’ thinking on political life. Previous winners have included Tanya Talaga, Kamal Al-Solaylee, and last year’s winner, Joanna Chiu.

The books shortlisted for this year’s prize are:

• Kinauvit?: What’s Your Name? The Eskimo Disc System and a Daughter’s Search for her Grandmother by Norma Dunning (Douglas & McIntyre)
• From Left to Right: Saskatchewan’s Political and Economic Transformation by Dale Eisler (University of Regina Press)
• Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy by Josh O’Kane (Random House Canada)
• Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) (HarperCollins Publishers)
• How to Be a Climate Optimist: Blueprints for a Better World by Chris Turner (Random House Canada)

The finalists for this year’s prize were chosen from 48 books submitted by 28 publishers. The submitted books were read and the shortlisted books selected by a jury made up of political science professor Terri E. Givens, Canadian pollster and data scientist Nik Nanos, and past prize finalist Jacques Poitras.

The winner will be announced on May 10 at this year’s Politics and the Pen gala in Ottawa.