The shortlists for the 2009 Writers’ Trust prizes were announced at Ben McNally Books in Toronto this morning. The nominees are:

The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize ($25,000):

• Nicole Brossard, Susanne de Lotbinière-Harwood, trans., Fences in Breathing (Coach House Books)
• Douglas Coupland, Generation A (Random House Canada)
• Annabel Lyon, The Golden Mean (Random House Canada)
• Alice Munro, Too Much Happiness (McClelland & Stewart)
• Andrew Steinmetz, Eva’s Threepenny Theatre (Gaspereau Press)

(Jurors: Marina Endicott, Miriam Toews, R.M. Vaughan)

The Writers’ Trust Non-fiction Prize ($25,000):

• Brian Brett, Trauma Farm: A Rebel History of Rural Life (Greystone Books)
• Wade Davis, The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World (House of Anansi Press)
• Trevor Herriot, Grass, Sky, Song: Promise and Peril in the World of Grassland Birds (HarperCollins Canada)
• Erika Ritter, The Dog by the Cradle, the Serpent Beneath: Some Paradoxes of Human-Animal Relationships (Key Porter Books)
• Eric Siblin, The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece (House of Anansi Press)

(Jurors: Tim Bowling, Anne Hart, Bruce Meyer)

The Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize ($10,000):

• Daniel Griffin, The Last Great Works of Alvin Cale (The Dalhousie Review)
• Dave Margoshes, The Wisdom of Solomon (The Dalhousie Review)
• Yasuko Thanh, Floating like the Dead (Vancouver Review)

(Jurors: Camilla Gibb, Lee Henderson, Rebecca Rosenblum)