Evelyn Richardson
Non-Fiction Award
One prize ($2,000) is awarded each year for a book of creative non-fiction that was written by a full-time resident of Nova Scotia and published or distributed for the first time in Canada in the year prior to the submission deadline. Creative nonfiction includes narrative nonfiction, collected essays, biography, memoir, and long-form academic publication that offers a complex and reflective narrative about original research. Additional finalists each receive $250.
The Evelyn Richardson Non-Fiction Award was established in 1977 to honour the work of nonfiction writers in Nova Scotia. It is named for Evelyn Richardson (1902 – 1976), who won the 1945 Governor General’s Non-Fiction Award for We Keep A Light, her memoir of life in a family of lighthouse keepers on Bon Portage Island, Shelburne County.
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Bartin Bauman
Hell of a Ride: Chasing Home and Survival on a Bicycle Ride Across Canada
(Pottersfield Press)
Andrea Currie
Finding Otipemisiwak: The People Who Own Themselves
(Arsenal Pulp Press)
Dean Jobb
A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue
(HarperCollins Canada)
2024 Winner
Karen Pinchin
Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas
(Knopf Canada)
2024 Finalists
Sherri Aikenhead
Mommy Don’t: From Mother to Murderer: The True Story of Penny and Karissa Boudreau
(Nimbus Publishing)
Kelly Thompson
Still, I Cannot Save You: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Love, and Letting Go
(McClelland & Stewart)
2024
Winner
Karen Pinchin
Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas
(Knopf Canada)
Finalist
Sherri Aikenhead
Mommy Don’t: From Mother to Murderer: The True Story of Penny and Karissa Boudreau
(Nimbus Publishing)
Finalist
Kelly Thompson
Still, I Cannot Save You: A Memoir of Sisterhood, Love, and Letting Go
(McClelland & Stewart)
2023
Winner
El Jones
Abolitionist Intimacies
(Fernwood Publishing)
Finalist
Kate Beaton
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands
(Drawn & Quarterly)
Finalist
Toufah Jallow with Kim Pittaway
Toufah: The Woman Who Inspired an African #MeToo Movement
(Penguin Random House)
2022
Winner
Stephen Kimber
Alexa! Changing the Face of Canadian Politics
(Goose Lane Editions)
Finalist
Susan MacLeod
Dying for Attention: A Graphic Memoir of Nursing Home Care
(Conundrum Press)
Finalist
Donna Morrissey
Pluck: A Memoir of a Newfoundland Childhood and the Raucous, Terrible, Amazing Journey to Becoming a Novelist
(Penguin Random House Canada)
2021
Winner
Tyler LeBlanc
Acadian Driftwood: One Family and the Great Expulsion
(Goose Lane Editions)
Finalist
Silver Donald Cameron
Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes
(Viking Canada)
Finalist
Rebecca Rose
Before the Parade: A History of Halifax’s Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Communities, 1972 - 1984
(Nimbus Publishing)
2020
Winner
Amy McKay
Daughter of Family G: A Memoir of Cancer Genes, Love and Fate
(Knopf Canada)
Finalist
The Honourable Dr. Mayann Francis
Mayann Francis: An Honourable Life
(Nimbus Publishing)
Finalist
Marq de Villiers
Hell and Damnation: A Sinner’s Guide to Eternal Torment
(University of Regina Press)
2019
Winner
Kate Inglis
Notes for the Everlost: A Field Guide to Grief
(Shambhala Publications)
Finalist
Lezlie Lowe
No Place To Go: How Public Toilets Fail Our Private Needs
(Coach House Books)
Finalist
Lorri Neilsen Glenn
Following the River: Traces of Red River Women
(Wolsak & Wynn)
2018
Winner
John DeMont
The Long Way Home: A Personal History of Nova Scotia
(McClelland & Stewart)
Finalist
Joan Baxter
The Mill: Fifty Years of Pulp and Protest
(Pottersfield Press)
Finalist
Pauline Dakin
Run, Hide, Repeat: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood
(Viking)
2017
Winner
Erin Wunker
Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on everyday life
(Bookhug Press)
Finalist
Burnley “Rocky” Jones and James W. St. G. Walker
Burnley “Rocky” Jones: Revolutionary
(Roseway Publishing)
Finalist
Jon Tattrie
Redemption Songs: How Bob Marley's Nova Scotia Song Lights The Way Past Racism
(Pottersfield Press)
2016
Winner
Gary L. Saunders
My Life with Trees
(Gaspereau Press)
Finalist
Marq de Villiers
Back to the Well: Rethinking the Future of Water
(Goose Lane Editions)
Finalist
Dean Jobb
Empire of Deception: From Chicago to Nova Scotia: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation
(HarperCollins)
2015
Winner
Kaleigh Trace
Hot, Wet, & Shaking: How I Learned to Talk About Sex
(Invisible Publishing)
Finalist
Heather Sparling
Reeling Roosters & Dancing Ducks: Celtic Mouth Music
(Cape Breton University Press)
Finalist
Graham Steele
What I Learned About Politics: Inside the Rise and Collapse of Nova Scotia's NDP Government
(Nimbus Publishing)
2014
Winner
Stephen Kimber
What Lies Across the Water: The Real Story of the Cuban Five
(Fernwood Publishing)
Finalist
John DeMont
A Good Day’s Work: In Pursuit of a Disappearing Canada
(Doubleday)
Finalist
Richard Foot
Driven: How the Bathurst Tragedy Ignited a Crusade for Change
(Goose Lane Editions)
2013
Winner
Steven Laffoley
Shadowboxing: the rise and fall of George Dixon
(Pottersfield Press)
Finalist
Jerry Lockett
The Discovery of Weather: Stephen Saxby, the tumultuous birth of weather forecasting, and Saxby’s Gale of 1869
(Formac)
Finalist
Herb MacDonald
Cape Breton Railways: An Illustrated History
(Cape Breton University Press)
2012
Winner
Harry Thurston
The Atlantic Coast: A Natural History
(Greystone Books & The David Suzuki Foundation)
Finalist
Chris Benjamin
Eco-Innovators: Sustainability in Atlantic Canada
(Nimbus Publishing)
Finalist
Ray MacLeod
Hope for Wildlife: True Stories of Animal Rescue
(Nimbus Publishing)
2011
Winner
Laura Penny
More Money Than Brains: Why Schools Suck, College is Crap & Idiots Think They're Right
(McClelland & Stewart)
Finalist
J. A. Wainwright
Blazing Figures: A Life of Robert Markle
(Wilfred Laurier University Press)
Finalist
Christopher A. Walsh
Under the Electric Sky: The Legacy of the Bill Lynch Shows
(Pottersfield Press)
2010
Winner
John DeMont
Coal Black Heart: The Story of Coal and the Lives it Ruled
(Doubleday)
Finalist
Jason I. Brown
Our Days Are Numbered: How Mathematics Orders Our Lives
(McClelland & Stewart)
Finalist
Harry Bruce
Page Fright: Foibles and Fetishes of Famous Writers
(McClelland & Stewart)
2009
Winner
William B. Naftel
Halifax at War: Searchlights, Squadrons and Submarines, 1939 - 1945
(Formac)
Finalist
Marq de Villiers
Dangerous World: Natural Disasters, Manmade Catastrophes, and the Future of Human Survival
(Viking)
Finalist
Stephen Kimber
Loyalists & Layabouts: The Rapid Rise and Faster Fall of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, 1783 - 1792
(Doubleday)
2008
Winner
Marq de Villiers
The Witch in the Wind: The True Story of the Legendary Bluenose
(Thomas Allen Publishers)
Finalist
Stewart Donovan
The Forgotten World of R.J. MacSween: A Life
(Cape Breton University Press)
Finalist
Steven Edwin Laffoley
Hunting Halifax: In Search of History, Mystery and Murder
(Pottersfield Press)
2007
Winner
Linden MacIntyre
Causeway: A Passage from Innocence
(McClelland & Stewart)
Finalist
Natalie MacLean
Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass
(Doubleday)
Finalist
Marq de Villiers
Windswept: The Story of Wind and Weather
(McClelland & Stewart)
2006
Winner
Linda Johns
Birds of a Feather: Tales of a Wild Bird Haven
(Goose Lane Editions)
Finalist
Dean Jobb
The Acadians: A People’s Story of Exile and Triumph
(John Wiley & Sons)
Finalist
Laura M. Mac Donald
Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion, 1917
(HarperCollins)
2005
Winner
Marq de Villiers and Sheila Hirtle
A Dune Adrift: The Strange Origins and Curious History of Sable Island
(McClelland & Stewart)
Finalist
David B. Flemming
Explosion in Halifax Harbour: The Illustrated Account of a Disaster that Shook the World
(Formac)
Finalist
Roger Marsters
Bold Privateers: Terror, Plunder and Profit on Canada’s Atlantic Coast
(Formac)
2004
Winner
Harry Thurston
Island of the Blessed: The Secrets of Egypt's Everlasting Oasis
(Doubelday)
Finalist
Billy Budge
Memoirs of a Lightkeeper’s Son: Life on St. Paul Island
(Pottersfield Press)
Finalist
Heather Laskey
Night Voices: Heard in the Shadow of Hitler and Stalin
(McGill-Queen’s University Press)
2003
Winner
Stephen Kimber
Sailors, Slackers and Blind Pigs: Halifax at War
(Doubelday)
Finalist
Dan Falk
Universe on a T-Shirt: The Quest for a Theory of Everything
(Viking)
Finalist
Michael Harris
Con Game: The Truth About Canada's Prisons
(McClelland & Stewart)
2002
Winner
Kent Thompson
Getting Out of Town by Book and Bike
(Gaspereau Press)
Finalist
Dean Beeby
Deadly Frontiers: Disaster and Rescue on Canada’s Atlantic Seaboard
(Goose Lane Editions)
Finalist
Gary L. Saunder
Discover Nova Scotia: The Ultimate Nature Guide
(Nimbus Publishing & Nova Scotia Museum)
2001
Winner
Joan Baxter
A Serious Pair of Shoes: An African Journal
(Pottersfield Press)
Finalist
Andria Hill-Lehr
Mona Parsons: From privilege to prison, from Nova Scotia to Nazi Europe
(Nimbus Publishing)
Finalist
Harold Horwood
Among the Lions: A Lamb in the Literary Jungle
(Creative Book Publishing)
2000
Winner
Robin Metcalfe
Studio Rally: Art and Craft of Nova Scotia
(Goose Lane Editions)
Finalist
Linda Johns
For the Birds: Nature Notes from a Woodland Studio
(MacLellan & Stewart)
Finalist
Marq de Villiers
Water: Why You Should Worry
(Stoddart)
1999
Winner
Silver Donald Cameron
The Living Beach: Life, Death and Politics where the Land Meets the Sea
(Macmillan)
Finalist
Michael Harris
Lament for an Ocean: The Collapse of the Atlantic Cod Fishery: A True Crime Story
(MacLellan & Stewart)
Finalist
Ann Spencer
Alone at Sea: The Adventures of Joshua Slocum
(Doubleday)
1998
Harry Bruce
An Illustrated History of Nova Scotia
(Nimbus Publishing)
1997
Harry Thurston
The Nature of Shorebirds: Nomads of the Wetlands
(Greystone Books)
1996
Simone Poirier-Bures
That Shining Place
(Oberon Press)
1995
Elizabeth Pacey
Landmarks: Historic Buildings of Nova Scotia
(Nimbus Publishing)
1994
Peter Brock
Variations on a Planet
(Pottersfield Press)
1993
Sally Ross and Alphonse Deveau
The Acadians of Nova Scotia: Past and Present
(Nimbus Publishing)
1992
Robert Pope
Illness & Healing: Images of Cancer
(Lancelot Press)
1991
Harry Thurston
Tidal Life: A Natural History of the Bay of Fundy
(Camden House)
1990
Judith Fingard
The Dark Side of Life in Victorian Halifax
(Pottersfield Press)
1989
Dean Jobb
Shades of Justice: Seven Nova Scotia Murder Cases
(Nimbus Publishing)
1988
Harold Horwood
Dancing on the Shore: A Celebration of Life at Annapolis Basin
(McClelland & Stewart)
1987
Tony Foster
Meeting of Generals
(Methuen Publishing)
1986
P. B. Waite
The Man from Halifax: Sir John Thompson, Prime Minister
(University of Toronto Press)
1985
Lilias M. Toward
Mabel Bell: Alexander's Silent Partner
(Methuen Publishing)
1984
Brian C. Cuthbertson
The Loyalist Governor: Biography of Sir John Wentworth
(Petheric Press)
1983
J. Murray Beck
Joseph Howe: Volume 1, Conservative Reformer, 1804-1848
(McGill-Queen's University Press)
1982
Bruce Armstrong
Sable Island: Nova Scotia's Mysterious Island of Sand
(Doubelday)
1981
Kay Hill
Joe Howe: The Man Who Was Nova Scotia
(McClelland & Stewart)
1980
Joan and Lewis Payzant
Like a Weaver's Shuttle: A History of the Halifax-Dartmouth Ferries
(Nimbus Publishing)
1979
Alden Nowlan
Double Exposure
(Brunswick)
1978
Harry Bruce
Lifeline: The Story of the Atlantic Ferries and Coastal Boats
(Macmillan)
Evelyn Richardson was born Evelyn May Fox in 1902. Her first island home was Emerald Isle, also known as Stoddart Island, on the southern coast of Nova Scotia. She attended high school at Halifax Academy and later studied at Dalhousie University, earning a BA and becoming a teacher. In 1926, she married Morrill Richardson.
In her award-winning memoir, We Keep a Light she describes how she and her husband bought tiny Bon Portage Island and built a happy life there for themselves and their three children. Although their main responsibility was tending the lighthouse, they kept a garden and raised sheep and a few cows.
This memoir is known for its gentle humour, colourful stories and interesting personalities. According to The Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada, We Keep a Light is “an unsentimental, optimistic memoir of a simple lifestyle that suited the post-war mood and anticipated 1960s environmentalism.”
The Richardsons lived as lightkeepers on Bon Portage Island for 35 years. When they retired in 1964, the light was mechanized and the island acquired by Acadia University for its ecology and wildlife management programs.
Evelyn Richardson wrote several other books, including My Other Islands (1960)—“Mum’s best book,” says daughter Elizabeth Smith—and the historical novel Desired Haven (1953), set during the heyday of the Banks fishery. Where My Roots Go Deep, a collection of essays demonstrating her interest in local history, was published by Nimbus in 1996.
