Literary Awards are a great way to inspire the best production among a rush of better ones. A writer, a poet, a novelist – virtually anyone who writes should feel the fire inside to do the best. Recently, a Canadian literary award, among the best ones in Canada, the RBC-Taylor prize for non-fiction literature was awarded to Mark Bourrie, a well-known journalist and author who is currently working as a professor at Carleton University. He teaches history and also holds a position teaching Canadian Studies at the University of Ottawa. He received, graciously, the prize money of $25,000.
Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson, the book by Mark Bourrie, has won this award for him. This book, as described by many readers and critics, is a biography of Pierre-Espirit Raddison. However, the biography is not a boring and simple one which we usually read in the non-fiction books. The author, Bourrie, himself describes this character as the most colourful one in the history who is a murderer, pirate, salesman and cannibal other than being an adventurer and the co-founder of a company. The central character’s interaction with people of Europe and America has been painted in the book of non-fiction nature with a pleasant wave of imagination and factual correctness that make the book a readable piece of literature.
The prestigious RBC Taylor Prize for Non-fiction Literature, unfortunately, has announced that this edition was the last edition of this prize. Established in 1998 by the trust of Charles Taylor foundation, the first edition of the award was given to Wayne Johnston in 2000 for his book Baltimore’s Mansion. And since 2000, the award has been regularly bestowed upon the authors who have contributed the best to the literary non-fiction genre. In a press release that also announced the winner of the 2020 edition of RCB-Taylor Prize for non-fiction literature, the trust announced that it was the last edition of this coveted and prestigious award which helped in changing the perception of readers towards literary non-fiction in the country and also inspired the authors to do their best in the genre.
We congratulate Mark Bourrie for his achievement and also extend our thanks to the trustees of RCB Taylor foundation for the work they have done for 20 long years.
We will also post the review of Bush Runner like many other Indian Book Review websites will be doing in the coming days.