Max Wyman's The Compassionate Imagination among finalists for Balsillie Prize for Public Policy
Nonfiction book praised for “deep insights into how and why arts and cultural funding is vital to safeguarding Canada’s present and future”
Max Wyman
B.C. ARTS WRITER Max Wyman has been named a finalist in the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s national Balsillie Prize for Public Policy.
His 2023 book The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts Are Central to a Functioning Democracy, published by Cormorant Books, looks back at a gradual reduction of the importance of arts to an educated workforce. It proposes recentring arts and culture in education as a way of building a more vibrant and healthy society.
The annual award recognizes comprehensive nonfiction books that further policy discussions on social, political, economic, and cultural topics. Winners receive $60,000 and each finalist receives $5,000. The 2023 prizewinner will be announced on Tuesday, November 28 at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto.
The jury called the book by Lion’s Bay-based Wyman “a brilliant, breathtaking, and lyrical exploration of the power and importance of the arts to functioning democracies. A profound and beautifully written examination, Wyman offers deep insights into how and why arts and cultural funding is vital to safeguarding Canada’s present and future.” Wyman is a longtime Vancouver arts writer and cultural commentator, as well as an arts policy consultant who has sat on the board for the Canada Council for the Arts.
His book joins finalists Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence, published by Harvard Business Review Press
and written by Toronto’s Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb; Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada, published by HarperCollins Publishers and written by Saskatchewan’s Michelle Good; Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups: Canada’s Quest for Interprovincial Free Trade, published by McGill-Queen's University Press and written by Toronto’s Ryan Manucha; and Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good, published by St. Martin’s Press and written by Mississauga’s David R. Samson.
Launched in 2021, the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy celebrates excellence in quality of thought and style, and the important role books play in advancing public discourse and bringing new ideas to Canadian policymakers. Jim Balsillie is the former chairman and co-CEO of Research In Motion (the company behind the BlackBerry).
The 2023 jury was composed of author and physician Samantha Nutt, policy expert Taki Sarantakis, and digital strategist Scott Young.
Related Articles
