Rosemary Sullivan wins B.C. non fiction prize for ‘Stalin’s Daughter’

Rosemary Sullivan’s award-winning book, Stalin’s Daughter
(Photo from Harper Collins website)

VANCOUVER—Toronto author Rosemary Sullivan’s lauded biography on Stalin’s daughter has won the British Columbia National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

“Stalin’s Daughter: The Extraordinary and Tumultuous Life of Svetlana Alliluyeva” (HarperCollins Canada) took the $40,000 prize on Thursday.

The book has already won the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction and is on the short list for the $25,000 RBC Taylor Prize.

The jury for the B.C. prize called it a “comprehensive biography delivering sharply observed and meticulously researched revelations about Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Josef Stalin.”

“It provides unique insights, and deeply contributes to our understanding of many significant events of the past century,” jury members Anne Giardini, Richard Gwyn and Hal Wake said in a statement.

The other finalists for this year’s B.C. non-fiction prize included “Stephen Harper” by John Ibbitson (McClelland & Stewart), “Beyond the Pale” by Emily Urquhart (HarperCollins Canada), and “The Right to be Cold” by Sheila Watt-Cloutier (Allen Lane).

Now in its 12th year, the B.C. prize is funded by the British Columbia Achievement Foundation.