Dundurn Press is thrilled to announce that three of our authors, Kate Armstrong, Amanda Laird, and Joanne Vannicola, have been shortlisted for the 2020 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in the nonfiction category!

Dundurn Press is excited to congratulate historian and author Debra Komar whose 2019 book The Court of Better Fiction is shortlisted for the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book!

None of it would have happened if I hadn’t taken a risk.

I’d long wanted to write a book about the haunted hospital near my house, but I didn’t know where to start or how to balance things or… well, anything. I just felt like it had a story I wanted to tell, something about the history and the rumours about ghosts and hauntings.

Dundurn Press is thrilled to congratulate Dennis McConaghy whose 2019 book Breakdown is shortlisted for the 2020 Donner Prize!

Breakdown: The Pipeline Debate and the Threat to Canada's Future is an examination of Canada’s struggle to rationalize hydrocarbon development that culminated in the 2018 impasse over the Trans Mountain Pipeline extension. Named one of the Hill Times’ “100 Best Non-Fiction Canadian Books in 2019,” Breakdown is McConaghy’s second book after 2017’s highly praised Dysfunction: Canada after Keystone XL.

Even before coronavirus, there was an urgent need for clear communication, for translating science into plain language, for demystifying medicine and for reducing stigma around disease and disability. This type of science writing is even more critical during this global pandemic. 

In Jacob Bronowski’s 1973 book The Ascent of Man, based on the television series, he talks about the danger of an ‘aristocracy of intellect.’ He warns that keeping scientific knowledge only amongst such an aristocracy could “destroy the civilization that we know.” He writes:

My life has been blessed by five powerful Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), two that happened in my childhood, and three that occurred in my adult life, my most recent in 2003.  My first adult Near-Death Experience in a plane crash in 1979 changed the entire course of my life and my career as a medical doctor.

Hello Canada,

I’d like to introduce you to my first novel, an action thriller called True Patriots. It will be published by Dundurn Press at the end of February.

Remember the East-versus-West bickering during last fall’s election? The arguments seem trapped in a perpetual cycle, resurfacing every few years. What if things got really out of hand the next time? I mean really, really got out of hand. That’s the premise of my novel.

Dear Canada,

My journey to publication of my first book was a journey that took over forty years...probably not an unusual statement for a memoir. However, believe me, I tried to write my story many, many times before it finally flowed effortlessly into the final form which will be published in February. I can see now that the story wasn't ready to be told until just this moment in time, because my motivation had to align with the purpose of the book in order for it to enter reality.

Hello Canada,

This year marks the release of my debut book, Alone: A Love Story, which is a memoir, sure, but it’s as much yours as it is mine. 

As a writer of memoir, I’ve experienced the dominoes of fear; fear of starting, fear of failure, fear of telling the whole truth, fear of hurting others. In the big picture of life, I am no stranger to feeling fear and taking action anyhow. I had reached the jumping off point where telling my story felt more important than avoiding my fear of the dark places that could lead.