Science Writers and Communicators of Canada announced the shortlists for the 2024 SWCC Book Awards last week at the association’s 2025 conference in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The prizes recognize outstanding contributions to science writing by Canadians in general and youth categories. A third award, the Paradigm Prize, recognizes underrepresented perspectives in science writing, for which the winner is selected from among the finalists for the two main categories.

The four finalists in each of the main categories are:

General

• The Exclusion Effect: How the Sciences Discourage Girls and Women and What to Do About It by Kirsty Duncan (Sutherland House Books)
• The Honey Trap: How the Good Intentions of Urban Beekeepers Risk Ecological Disaster by Dana L. Church (Sutherland House Books)
• Medicine Wheel for the Planet: A Journey toward Personal and Ecological Healing by Jennifer Grenz (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Mind the Science: Saving your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry by Jonathan N. Stea (Random House Canada)

Youth

• A Planet Is a Poem by Amanda West Lewis and Oliver Averill, illus. (Kids Can Press)
• How to Know a Crow: The Biography of a Brainy Bird by Candace Savage and Rachel Hudson, illus. (Greystone Books)
• I Am Wind by Rachel Poliquin and Rachel Wada, illus. (Tundra Books/Penguin Random House Canada)
• I Was: Stories of Animal Skulls by Katherine Hocker and Natasha Donovan, illus. (Candlewick Press)

Winners of the general and youth book awards receive $1,000 and the Paradigm Prize winner receives $500.

The winners will be announced in September.

The SWCC encompasses media professionals, technical writers, educators, and communications officers in science and technology-related institutions.