Charles Taylor Prize, Andrew Westoll wins Charles Taylor Prize for Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary. Andrew Westoll, author of The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary, won the $25,000 Charles Taylor prize for excellence in literary non-fiction on Monday.
Westoll's book is about Gloria Grow, founder of the Fauna Sanctuary in Quebec, and the chimps she rescued from a biomedical research lab.
"It's such an honour," Westoll said at the awards ceremony in Toronto. "I'm totally surprised and humbled by this."
Westoll, a former biologist and primatologist, volunteered at Fauna for several months, cautiously extracting the damaged histories of the chimpanzees.
Our reviewer said their stories "are so disturbing they can only be read through hot tears. The moral quagmire of primate research is amplified by the psychologically deteriorated state the chimps were in when they arrived at the sanctuary."
He thanked his wife, his parents, Grow and the chimpanzees themselves.
Westoll completed his masters degree in creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
The other nominated books were: Wade Davis, author of Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest; Charlotte Gill, author of Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe; Madeline Sonik, author of Afflictions & Departures: Essays; and JJ Lee, Vancouver Sun men's fashion columnist and author of The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit.
The jury included author and academic Allan M. Brandt, dean of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University; award-winning author Stevie Cameron, herself a finalist for the 2011 Charles Taylor Prize; and well-respected non-fiction editor and publishing consultant Susan Renouf.
"This is about the hardest decision we've ever made in our lives," Renouf said at the ceremony. "We were still debating it this morning."
The runners up will each receive $2,000.
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Andrew+Westoll+wins+Charles+Taylor+Prize+Chimps+Fauna+Sanctuary/6253046/story.html#ixzz1oJfsocFe
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