Wonderful to wake up in Melrose, Scotland, to discover that the shortlist for the 2018 John W. Dafoe Book Prize includes Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage. 

The $10K book prize memorializes John Wesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian editors of the 20th century. It celebrates non-fiction excellence about Canada, Canadians, and the Canadian nation in international affairs. In his four decades at the Manitoba Free Press, later renamed the Winnipeg Free Press, Dafoe became legendary while championing western Canadian development, free trade, and national independence. The other four shortlisted titles for the prestigious award, chosen from among thirty-eight nominees, are: Vimy: The Battle and the Legend by Tim Cook; Unbuttoned: The History of Mackenzie King’s Secret Life by Christopher Dummitt; Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga; and The Cinderella Campaign: First Canadian Army and the Battles for the Channel Ports by Mark Zuehlke. I’m chuffed to see Dead Reckoning turn up in such company. The winner will be named later in the spring and collect the award at the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Annual Book Prize Dinner in May.