Maggie Helwig's Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community (Coach House Books) won the C$40,000 (about US$29,435) Writers Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing, which recognizes a "book of literary nonfiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian readers and has the potential to shape or influence thinking on contemporary Canadian political life."
In their citation, the jury said: "A necessary, on-the-ground view of Canada’s homelessness crisis, Encampment succeeds where much of political handwringing and wishful thinking around housing and poverty consistently fail. Maggie Helwig never lets compassion impede lucidity, and her book avoids both cynicism and battle fatigue. The result: a clear-eyed call to not look away, but to deepen understanding of the issue. As more and more of our neighbors find themselves living unsheltered, this book is essential reading."