BooksVancouver writer Vince Beiser’s Power Metal is the 2025 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy winner.Vancouver writer Vince Beiser’s Power Metal is the 2025 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy winnerCBC Books · Posted: Nov 26, 2025 9:04 AM EST | Last Updated: 1 hour agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Power Metal is a book by Vince Beiser. (Riverhead Books, Spencer Lowell)Vancouver writer and author Vince Beiser has won the 2025 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy for his book, Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape The Future. The annual prize recognizes nonfiction that advances public discourse.The award, administered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, is now in its fifth year. In recognition of the anniversary, the prize purse has been increased from $60,000 to $70,000 to the winner, and $5,000 to $7,500 to each finalist. Power Metal examines how extracting the metals used for technology and green energy contribute to environmental havoc, political upheaval and rising violence. By talking to people involved from around the world, Beiser interrogates how we can minimize the damage and offers a look into what the future could be. Power Metal was chosen by a jury composed of author and physician Samantha Nutt, policy expert Taki Sarantakis and digital strategist Scott Young.“Power Metal deftly illustrates that the road to net zero is going to be both messy and metallic, with the underbelly of the global green transition being the huge volumes of critical minerals that are required,” the jury said in a press statement. “While the metals vary in their use-case, scarcity and fungibility, each has unique properties that render them invaluable. Vince Beiser’s book rests on an inescapable paradox: that the most viable path to combating and solving climate change depends on extracting critical minerals from the warming planet itself.”LISTEN | Vince Beiser on his book, Power Metal:Superior Morning11:42Vince Beiser: “Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future”Beiser is also known for his first book, The World in a Grain, about the history of sand, which was a finalist for a PEN America Award, the California Book Award and inspired a TEDx Talk.The winner was selected from 58 titles representing 35 Canadian publishing imprints. The remaining finalists were Vass Bednar and Denise Hearn for The Big Fix, Pamela Cross for And Sometimes The Kill You and Stephen J.A. Ward for Irrational Publics and the Fate of Democracy. The shortlisted titles are available in accessible formats through the Centre of Equitable Library Access. The prize is funded by the Balsillie Family Foundation, as part of its $3 million donation to Writers’ Trust to support Canadian literature. It’s the largest award of its kind for Canadian public policy titles.The Writers’ Trust of Canada is an organization that supports Canadian writers through literary awards, fellowships, financial grants, mentorships and more. It also gives out prizes in recognition of the year’s best in fiction, nonfiction and short story, as well as mid-career and lifetime achievement awards. The 2025 winners include Maria Reva and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson.Previous Balsillie Prize winners include We, The Data by Wendy H. Wong, Innovation in Real Places by Dan Breznitz and Dream States by John Lorinc.
Book on the future of metal extraction wins $70K Canadian prize for public policy writing
