Toronto-based Dundurn Press dominates this year’s Ontario Speaker’s Book Award shortlists, with six nominations. Launched five years ago by the Honourable Dave Levac, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, the two prizes celebrate books that reflect some aspect of the province’s culture, governance, or history.

The finalists are:

Speaker’s Book Award

• Bill Davis: Nation Builder, and Not So Bland After All, Steve Paikin (Dundurn Press)
• Bomb Girls: Trading Aprons for Ammo, Barbara Dickson (Dundurn)
• Dalton McGuinty: Making a Difference, Dalton McGuinty (Dundurn)
• The Duke of Kent: A Memoir, Darcy McKeough with Rod McQueen (ECW Press)
• Invisible North: The Search for Answers on a Troubled Reserve, Alexandra Shimo (Dundurn)
• The Red Kelly Story, Leonard “Red” Kelly with L. Waxy Gregoire and David M. Dupuis (ECW)
• Seasons of Hope: Memoirs of Ontario’s First Aboriginal Lieutenant Governor, James Bartleman (Dundurn)
• Subdivided: City-Building in an Age of Hyper-Diversity, Jay Pitter and John Lorinc, eds. (Coach House Books)

Young Authors Award

• Alone Against the North: An Expedition Into the Unknown, Adam Shoalts (Viking Canada)
• One Soldier: A Canadian Soldier’s Fight Against the Islamic State, Dillon Hillier with Russell Hillier (HarperCollins)
• Something Wiki, Suzanne Sutherland (Dundurn)

The winners will be announced at the Ontario Legislative Building on March 6.