Graeme Smith’s Afghan war book wins $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize

TORONTO – Journalist Graeme Smith’s memoir on the war in Afghanistan has won the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

“The Dogs Are Eating Them Now: Our War in Afghanistan” (Knopf Canada) nabbed the prize Monday at a ceremony at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.

Smith covered the Afghan war for the Globe and Mail from 2005 to 2009.

Prize jury members praised his book as an “eyebrow-raising account of what he saw during his six years of reporting on that effort for the Globe and Mail: a tragic mix of cultural ignorance, miscommunication, greed, brutality, and political naivete that no amount of individual courage and dedication could ultimately overcome.

“A graphic but determinedly even-handed memoir that does much to counter the reams of official spin this topic has endured over the years.”

This year’s jury included Hal Niedzviecki, Andreas Schroeder and last year’s prize winner, Candace Savage.

Helping them choose the winner was Samantha Nutt, founder and executive director of War Child Canada, and CBC broadcast journalist Evan Solomon.

The other four finalists each receive $5,000.

The annual prize is said to be the richest annual literary award for a book of non-fiction published in Canada.