The longlist for the final RBC Taylor Prize was announced this morning and contains high-profile titles from Robyn Doolittle, Jessica McDiarmid, and veteran military historian Ted Barris, as well as powerful debuts from Samra Habib and Helen Knott. The Taylor Prize, which will end after 20 years, honours the best writing in English-language Canadian non-fiction.

The 12 longlisted titles were selected from 155 submissions by a jury comprised of Canadian novelist and poet Margaret Atwood; University of Reading, U.K., English professor Coral Ann Howells; and American writer and translator Peter Theroux.

The longlist in full:

• Rush to Danger: Medics in the Line of Fire, Ted Barris (HarperCollins Canada)
• Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, Mark Bourrie (Biblioasis)
• The Grandmaster: Magnus Carlsen and the Match That Made Chess Great Again, Brin-Jonathan Butler (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Had It Coming: What’s Fair in the Age of #MeToo, Robyn Doolittle (Allen Lane)
• We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir, Samra Habib (Viking Canada)
• In My Own Moccasins: A Memoir of Resilience, Helen Knott (University of Regina Press)
• Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for
  Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, Jessica McDiarmid (Doubleday Canada)
• The Regency Years: During Which Jane Austen Writes, Napoleon Fights, Byron Makes Love and Britain Becomes Modern, Robert Morrison (W.W. Norton)
• Overrun: Dispatches from the Asian Carp Crisis, Andrew Reeves (ECW Press)
• The Mongolian Chronicles: A Story of Eagles, Demons and Empires, Allen Smutylo (Goose Lane Editions)
• The Reality Bubble: Blind Spots, Hidden Truths, and the Dangerous Illusions that Shape Our World, Ziya Tong (Allen Lane)
• The Mosquito: A Human History of our Deadliest Predator, Timothy C. Winegard (Allen Lane)

The shortlist will be revealed on January 8, 2020, with the $30,000 grand prize winner named at a gala luncheon on March 2.

The Taylor Prize, endowed by the Charles Taylor Foundation, was first awarded in 2000. It was founded by Noreen Taylor in honour of her late husband Charles. The final ceremony will celebrate all Taylor Prize winners throughout the award’s history.