Thomas King Awarded 2014 RBC Taylor Prize!

It is truly Thomas King's year — mere weeks after being awarded the BC National Non-Fiction Award, and after nominations for the Trillium Prize and Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, he topped off his accolades with the prestigious, $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize for Non-fiction.

Presented by prize founder Noreen Taylor at a luncheon in Toronto yesterday, the prize is one of the most established and most respected in the country. King's book The Inconvenient Indian (Doubleday Canada), has struck a chord with readers and reviewers across the country since its publication in 2012. A blend of personal and general history, it has garnered widespread praise for its nuanced treatment of the question "What does it mean to be 'Indian' in North America?".

The jury, composed of U.K.-based university professor and critic Coral Ann Howells, editorial director, author and professor James Polk and author, English and creative writing instructor and former Charles Taylor Prize winner, Andrew Westoll, read 124 books, submitted by 45 publishers from around the world, and chose the winner from their five-book shortlist. In addition to King, the shortlist included authors Charlotte Gray, J.B. MacKinnon, Graeme Smith and David Stouck.

In an added twist, this year's edition of the prize will include King selecting and mentoring a $10,000 winner of the newly-created RBC Taylor Emerging Author award. The inaugural winner of this awarded will be announced by King on March 17.