Ken Dryden, Carol Off, Tanya Talaga make the longlist for $40K nonfiction prize

Ten books comprise the longlist for the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction, including hockey legend Ken Dryden's Game Change, CBC Radio host Carol Off's All We Leave Behind and Toronto Star journalist Tanya Talaga's Seven Fallen Feathers.

The annual $40,000 prize honours the best in Canadian nonfiction writing.

Dryden's book Game Change explores the science and culture of concussions in hockey, telling the story of NHL enforcer Steve Montador who was diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, shortly after his death in 2015.

• 'Concussions affect a life': Ken Dryden wants hockey rules changed to save players' lives

Off's a finalist for All We Leave Behind, which is also nominated for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. The book is about Asad Aryubwal, an Afghan man whose family was threatened after he publicly spoke out against warlords in a CBC documentary. The book recounts Aryubwal's long journey to bring his family to safety.

• How Carol Off balanced fact and emotion in writing All We Leave Behind

Talaga's book Seven Fallen Feathers, another finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, is about seven Indigenous high school students who died in Thunder Bay, Ont., hundreds of kilometres away from home. The book recounts the numerous injustices the Indigenous community faces on a daily basis.

•  Why Tanya Talaga wrote a book about the lives and deaths of 7 Indigenous students in Thunder Bay

The prize jury includes Jan Walter, Rick Antonson and Eliza Reid.

Here is the complete longlist:

• Island of the Blue Foxes by Stephen R. Bown
• Vimy by Tim Cook
• Run, Hide, Repeat by Pauline Dakin
• Game Change by Ken Dryden
• Better Now by Danielle Martin
• Life on the Ground Floor by James Maskalyk
• All We Leave Behind by Carol Off
• Maximum Canada by Doug Saunders
• Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga
• The Patch by Chris Turner

The shortlist will be announced on Dec. 1, 2017, with the winner announcement following in early 2018.

CORRECTION: This story originally stated that Hal Wake and John Burns were on the jury and that the longlist released on Nov. 1, 2017 was for the 2017 prize. However, Wake and Burns were on the 2017 jury and this longlist is for the 2018 prize.