Andrew Stobo Sniderman (JD 2014) and Professor Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) awarded J.W. Dafoe Book Prize

Writer Andrew Stobo Sniderman (JD 2014), and Professor Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii) (JD 2003), Prichard Wilson Chair in Law & Public Policy at the Faculty of Law, have been awarded the 2023 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize for their co-authored book, Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation (HarperCollins Canada, 2022).

The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, established in 1984, is awarded for excellence in non-fiction writing, with a focus on Canada, Canadians, the West, as well as the nation in international affairs. It is one of the largest prizes for non-fiction writing in Canada, administered by the J.W. Dafoe Foundation, honouring Western Canadian journalist and editor, John Wesley Dafoe (1866-1944).

In Valley of the Birdtail, Stobo Sniderman and Sanderson tell the story of two communities in Manitoba “divided by a valley, a river and 150 years of racism”.

Jury chair, Mary Agnes Welch, former president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, said the jury’s decision was unanimous.

“Valley of the Birdtail is the most clear-eyed and compassionate book on the legacy of Indigenous inequality I’ve read. It’s maddening in parts, wryly funny in other parts, and its vivid characters – prairie Canadians will recognize them all – bring the complex national issue of white supremacy right down to John Dafoe’s backyard,” said Agnes Welch.

The writers will be recognized at an event for the J.W. Dafoe Foundation’s Book Prize later this year. 

Read the J.W. Dafoe Foundation announcement