Co-authors Andrew Stobo Sniderman (JD 2014) and Professor Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)
Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) have won two literary awards from the Quebec Writers’ Federation (QWF).
Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation, “multi-generational account of racism and reconciliation,” was awarded the 2023 Concordia University First Book Prize and the 2023 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction.
In a QWF news release, jurors wrote the book is “moving, accessible journey through community conflict,” and “down-to-earth, colloquially vibrant, seamlessly and impressively structured, Valley of the Birdtail welcomes the reader inside the history, realities, and emotions of people we have likely never met [but] are very happy to know.”
The QWF is a non-profit stewarding English-language literary programs and writers in the province of Quebec. The 25th-Anniversary of the QWF Awards Gala recognized writers in several categories including, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, first book, book translation, children’s/young adult literature and playwriting.
Valley of the Birdtail was co-authored by alumni Stobo Sniderman (JD 2014) and Sanderson (JD 2003). Sanderson is Swampy Cree, Beaver clan, of the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Professor, Prichard Wilson Chair in Law & Public Policy and decanal adviser on Indigenous issues at U of T Law. Stobo Sniderman is writer, lawyer, and Rhodes Scholar from Montreal.
The book’s many honours include the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, the Stubbendieck Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize and a 2023 High Plains Book Award. The book also received an honourable mention from the Canadian Law and Society Association’s W. Wesley Pue Book Prize.
Since its publication by HaperCollins Canada in 2022, Valley of the Birdtail was also shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and the Ontario Library Association’s (OLA) Evergreen Award.
