Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan by Tim Martin has been longlisted for the 2025 J.W. Dafoe Book Prize. The J.W. Dafoe Foundation awards this prize annually to the best book on Canada, Canadians, and/or Canada’s place in the world published in the previous calendar year.

The prize memorializes John Wesley Dafoe, one of the most significant Canadian editors of the 20th century. It is one of the richest book awards for exceptional Canadian non-fiction. In his tenure at the Manitoba Free Press, later renamed the Winnipeg Free Press, from 1901-1944, Dafoe was known for his advocacy of western development, free trade and national independence.

This year’s jurors are Dale Barbour, Patricia Bovey and Gregory Mason.

 2025 Longlist 

• Mark Bourrie. Crosses in the Sky: Jean de Brébeuf and the Destruction of Huronia. Biblioasis. 

• Raymond Blake. Canada’s Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity. Vancouver: UBC Press. 

• Crystal Gail Fraser. By Strength, We are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. 

• Gerald Friesen. The Honourable John Norquay: Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesman. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press. 

• Tim Martin. Unwinnable Peace: Untold Stories of Canada’s Mission in Afghanistan. Tidewater Press. 

• Ken McGoogan. Shadows of Tyranny: Defending Democracy in an Age of Dictatorship. Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre. 

• Asa McKercher & Michael D. Stevenson. Building a Special Relationship: Canada-US Relations in the Eisenhower Era, 1953-61. Vancouver: UBC Press. 

• Niigan Sinclair. Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. 

• M.G. Vassanji.Nowhere, Exactly: On Identity and Belonging.Toronto:Doubleday Canada.

• Jody Wilson-Raybould & Roshan Danesh.Reconciling History: A Story of Canada. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.

The five shortlisted books will be announced on September 25.

The winner of the J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, now valued at $12,000, will be named October 14.