SPOW member in the running for literary prize

Sandra Martin, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, in December was named one of 15 writers in the running for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction.

Martin's book,  Working the Dead Beat: 50 Lives that Changed Canada  (House of Anansi Press, September 2012), offers a historical view of Canada through the lives of individuals she had written about.  In book length, she accomplishes what cannot be done in a newspaper obituary -- present a fuller context of what she calls "transformative lives."  Subjects include Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, economist John Kenneth Galbraith, and urban theorist Jane Jacobs. 

Martin offers "a select history of Canada told through extended obituaries of both the known and the unknown, researched energetically and written graciously," writes Canadian journalist Paula Todd. "Her tone is thoughtful, her scolding scant, and almost all of the transformative Canadians are presented in the context of their own struggles."

Author Ted Barris, a journalism professor at Centennial College in Toronto and a veteran CBC radio contributor, calls Martin "the obit queen of Canada."  Working the Dead Beat includes Sandra's reflections on what she has learned from writing obituaries.  You can find her discussing the book here and, briefly, here.

Congratulations to Sandra on this important book!