Veteran Canadian journalist Carol Off is among the five finalists for the $60,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.

Her latest book, “All We Leave Behind” is the tale of a family’s desperate attempt to escape Afghan warlords, the Taliban and the persecutions of refugees. Off told the New Classical FM that story is real and began in 2002 when she was in Afghanistan shooting a documentary. She returned to the story after learning she’d left the family behind and in serious trouble. The book goes on to detail the arduous 9-year process that brought the family to Canada.

Other books on the list are Tanya Talaga’s “Seven Fallen Feathers; Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City”, Kyo Maclear’s “Birds Art Life”, Ivan Coyote’s “Tomboy Survival Guide” and James Maskalyk’s “Life on the Ground Floor; Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine.”

The award will be presented in November in Toronto.