Wendy H. Wong wins $60K Balsillie Prize for best public policy book
The annual award recognizes nonfiction that advances public discourse
B.C.-based scholar Wendy H. Wong has won the 2024 Balsillie Prize for public policy for her book We, The Data: Human rights in the digital age.
Established in 2021, the annual $60,000 award recognizes the best nonfiction book that advances public discourse relevant to Canadians.
We, The Data highlights how pervasive data collection and tracking are in everyday life. Laying the foundation for future policy, We, The Data calls for human rights to be extended to encourage human potential when data threatens to complicate how we progress.
Wong is a professor at the University of British Columbia Okanagan in the department of political science. She co-authored two other books with Sarah S. Stroup, Internal Affairs and Authority Trap.
We, The Data was also shortlisted for the 2024 Lionel Gelber Prize.
The 2024 jury was composed of Toronto author and physician Samantha Nutt, president of the Canada School of Public Service Taki Sarantakis and Sweden-based digital strategist and research consultant Scott Young.
"We, The Data is an eye-opening, gripping look at the ways in which humanity is being codified, monitored, and tracked at alarming speed and intensity — in largely unaccountable ways," said the jury in a press statement.
"Understanding how data is being collected, why, and by whom are central to grappling with the legislative protections needed to ensure Canadians continue living with dignity and autonomy. Wong expertly argues that this understanding is central to democratic freedoms and the ongoing protection of citizens' human rights."
The winner was selected by the jury from 58 titles submitted by 36 publishers. The remaining finalists were M.G. Vassanji for Nowhere, Exactly, Gregor Craigie for Our Crumbling Foundation and Christopher Pollon for Pitfall. They will each receive $5,000.
The prize is funded by the Balsillie Family Foundation, as part of its $3 million donation to Writers' Trust to support Canadian literature. It's the largest award of its kind for Canadian public policy titles.
The Writers' Trust of Canada is an organization that supports Canadian writers through literary awards, fellowships, financial grants, mentorships and more.
It also gives out 11 prizes in recognition of the year's best in fiction, nonfiction and short story, as well as mid-career and lifetime achievement awards. The winners of many of this year's prizes were announced at a ceremony in Toronto on Nov. 19.
Previous Balsillie Prize winners include Innovation in Real Places by Dan Breznitz and Dream States by John Lorinc.
