Governor General of Canada and Mrs Sharon Johnston to attend the Charles Taylor Prize Award Ceremony on Monday. CNW to stream the book event from Toronto

TORONTO, March 1, 2012 /CNW/ - Their Excellencies the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, and Mrs. Sharon Johnston will attend The 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction Award ceremony, in Toronto. The $25,000 prize will be awarded on Monday, March 5, 2012 at a gala luncheon and awards ceremony at the famed Le Meridien King Edward Hotel in downtown Toronto. The ceremony to celebrate the finalists and announce the winner will be live-streamed on the Internet by media sponsor CNW Group.  The video broadcast will begin at 1.30 pm EST and will end at 2pm following the announcement of the winner.  All five authors will be in attendance.  To watch the awards ceremony visit:

http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=410884&s=1&k=42CBFEB39AAA7CA664D62A6D12B49E52

The Charles Taylor Prize consists of $25,000 for the winning author and $2000 for each of the remaining finalists.This year there are five authors on the prize shortlist. Four of the authors are from British Columbia (a record number for the Charles Taylor Prize.) The fifth, Andrew Westoll, lives in Toronto.

The 2012 Charles Taylor Prize Finalists and Their Books Are:

Wade Davis for Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest, published by Knopf Canada

Charlotte Gill for Eating Dirt: Deep Forests, Big Timber, and Life with the Tree-Planting Tribe, published by Greystone Books in partnership with the David Suzuki Foundation

J J Lee for The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit, published by McClelland & Stewart

Madeline Sonik for Afflictions & Departures: Essays, published by Anvil Press

Andrew Westoll for The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A Canadian Story of Resilience and Recovery, published by HarperCollins Publishers

The Charles Taylor Prize celebrates Canada's best literary voices, recognizing the exceptional authors who captivate us with their superb command of the English language, elegance of style and subtlety of thought and perception.

This marks the eleventh awarding of The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. The prize was originally awarded every two years, but due to an ever-increasing number of submissions, since 2004 the prize has been presented annually. It commemorates the late Charles Taylor, one of Canada's foremost essayists, a foreign correspondent and a prominent member of the Canadian literary community whose dream was to raise the public profile of non-fiction.

The jurors for The 2012 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction are Allan M. Brandt, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, award-winning author Stevie Cameron, and well-respected editor and consultant Susan Renouf. Full biographies of the jurors can be found here: http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2012/jury_12.asp

The trustees of The Charles Taylor Foundation gratefully acknowledge the support of their partners. The Presenting Sponsor of The Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is RBC Wealth Management; the Major Sponsor is Windfields Farm. The exclusive newspaper sponsor is The Globe and Mail and the Media Sponsors are CBC Books, CNW Group, The Globe and Mail, Maclean's magazine, Huffington Post Canada and Quill & Quire magazine. The In-Kind Sponsors are Authors at Harbourfront Centre (IFOA), Ben McNally Books, Event Source, Indigo Books and Music, Kobo Inc., Le Meridien King Edward Hotel, and the Toronto Review of Books.

To download high-resolution images of the jury, finalists, and shortlisted titles, please go to: http://www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca/2012/photogallery_12.asp For more information: www.thecharlestaylorprize.ca

To view the event LIVE at 1:30 p.m. EST via webcast, click on the following link:
http://event.on24.com/r.htm?e=410884&s=1&k=42CBFEB39AAA7CA664D62A6D12B49E52

To host the live webcast on your website, have your webmaster use the embed code in the following PDF - http://stream1.newswire.ca/media/2012/03/01/20120301_C9022_DOC_EN_10670.pdf. The stream will begin ten minutes prior to the start of the event, but can be placed on your site before this time. The title, date, and time of the event will show in the iframe until the stream starts, at which point the video window will automatically replace the text. If you have difficulties embedding the code your webmaster can call 1-877-377-1234 and ask for a Multimedia Producer to help.  

Media contact : Stephen Weir & Associates
Stephen Weir: Direct: 416.489.5868 | cell: 416.801.3101 | [email protected]
Linda Crane: Direct: 905.257.6033 | cell: 416.727.0112 | [email protected]