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Charles Hayter’s moving story, “The Boy Who Loved Alice,” has been long listed for the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize. It is one of 28 chosen from more than 1300 submissions from across Canada.

A reader for the competition says, “This father-son story spans decades, with cultural incompatibility and a struggle over sexuality, before coming to a place that surprises the author with the hidden lives of those we think we know.”

Zoe Whittle, Danny Ramadan and Knott are this year’s jury. The winner will receive $6000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two week residency at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and their work will be published on CBC Books.

The winner will be announced on September 25. Congratulations Charles and best wishes!

Alison Li has been awarded the 2025 Jason A. Hannah Medal by the Royal Society of Canada for her book Wondrous Transformations: A Maverick Physician, the Science of Hormones, and the Birth of the Transgender Revolution (University of North Carolina Press, 2023.) The Hannah Medal was established in 1976 with the assistance of Associated Medical Services Inc. and is awarded for an important work in the history of medicine published in the preceding five years.

Li says “It was tremendously rewarding to spend many years in the study of the life of Dr Harry Benjamin (1885-1986), a pivotal figure in the early development of transgender medicine. The long history of gender-affirming care deserves to be better known and I’m thankful to be able to share Benjamin’s story with a wider audience.”

The medal will be presented at the Awards Ceremony in Montreal on November 14 as part of the RSC Celebration of Excellence and Engagement.