Canada Reads 2020: Meet this year's contenders

Canada Reads, CBC's annual battle of the books, is officially back for another round of high-stakes debate. Every year, five prominent Canadians duke it out in front of a live audience as each one of them defends the book they believe the entire country should read. 

This time around, they're out to prove that they've found the "one book to bring Canada into focus," which is this year's Canada Reads theme.

To kick off this year's challenge, all five Canada Reads panellists joined host Tom Power live in the q studio to introduce the books they are championing.

The contenders and their chosen books are:

• Alayna Fender defending Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club by Megan Gail Coles
• Akil Augustine defending Radicalized by Cory Doctorow
• Amanda Brugel defending We Have Always Been Here by Samra Habib
• Kaniehtiio Horn defending Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson
• George Canyon defending From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle

You can catch the Canada Reads debates starting on March 16 on CBC Radio One and at cbc.ca/books. You'll hear a lot more from the 2020 panellists in the coming weeks on q. 

Download our podcast or click the 'Listen' link near the top of this page to hear the full conversation.

— Produced by Kaitlyn Swan