Wilfred Laurier University has revealed the finalists for its annual $10,000 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-fiction, which honours fantastic works of the genre that include a particularly Canadian significance or setting and were published the year prior.

Vancouver writer Judy McFarlane is shortlisted for Writing with Grace: A Journey Beyond Down Syndrome (Douglas & McIntyre), which confronts societal fears of “different” people through the author’s experience helping a young Down Syndrome woman write her first novel.

Mark Sakamoto, a Toronto lawyer before his foray into writing, made the list for Forgiveness: A Gift From My Grandparents (HarperCollins Canada), in which he shares his grandparents’ experiences of the Second World War and how they have in turn affected the author’s own life.

Lynn Thomson is a finalist for her debut title, Birding With Yeats (House of Anansi Press), a memoir recounting the international birding expedition that drew the bookseller-turned-writer closer to her son.

The winner will be revealed in early September, with an award ceremony to follow in November at Laurier’s Waterloo and Brantford campuses.