# Sandra Martin > Author & Journalist ## Posts - [The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize](https://sandramartinwrites.com/the-j-w-dafoe-book-prize/): I was really surprised and gratified to be shortlisted for this history prize. Here’s a link to a Canadian Press article about the prize. And here’s a link to the announcement on the Dafoe Foundation web page. - [The Donner Prize in Public Policy](https://sandramartinwrites.com/test/): I am thrilled to have A Good Death shortlisted for the Donner Prize.  The other nominated books are L’integration des services en sante: Une approche populationelle; Priests of Prosperity:  How Central Bankers Transformed the Postcommunist World; A Field Guide to Lies:  Critical Thinking in the Information Age; and Brand Command: Canadian Politics and Democracy in the Age of Message Control.  Congratulations to the other finalists. The winner will be announced on May 15, 2017. Here’s a link to a piece about the prize in The Globe and Mail   - [The BC National Book Prize](https://sandramartinwrites.com/the-bc-national-book-prize/): Heading to Vancouver this week for the announcement.  Thrilled to be on the shortlist with three such talented writers.  Here’s a link to Tracy Sherlock’s piece about the prize in the Vancouver Sun. http://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/national-award-from-indigenous-communities-to-death-with-dignity   - [A Good Death makes the top 15 non-fiction books on the CBC's best books of 2016.](https://sandramartinwrites.com/a-good-death-makes-the-top-15-non-fiction-books-on-the-cbcs-best-books-of-2016/): Here’s the link: CBC Best Books of 2016 - [A Good Death on The Globe 100 Best Books of 2016](https://sandramartinwrites.com/a-good-death-on-the-globe-100-best-books-of-2016/): Thrilled that A Good Death made the list.  Here’s the link: Globe 100 Best Books 2016     - [A Good Death a finalist for The B.C. National Award for Non-Fiction](https://sandramartinwrites.com/a-good-death-a-finalist-for-the-b-c-national-award-for-non-fiction/): Honoured to be one of four writers shortlisted. Here’s the link: B.C. National Award for Non-Fiction  - [How To Have a Good Death--Ramsay Talks, May 31](https://sandramartinwrites.com/how-to-have-a-good-death-ramsay-talks-may-31/): Signing books before the event. To read my talk, click here   - [Book launch for A Good Death](https://sandramartinwrites.com/book-launch-for-a-good-death/): Here are some images from my book launch at Ben McNally Books in Toronto on April 14–the same day that the Liberals tabled its right to die legislation, the deeply flawed Bill-C-14. The photographs were taken by Melissa Marques. For more pictures please click on this link: Pictures from my book launch         - [Some great reviews of A Good Death](https://sandramartinwrites.com/another-great-review-of-a-good-death/): http://vancouversun.com/entertainment/books/review-a-good-death-explores-crucial-timely-social-issue http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/books/exit-strategy-378490906.html   - [Here are some of my recent media appearances for A Good Death](https://sandramartinwrites.com/here-are-some-of-my-recent-media-appearances-for-a-good-death/): Here I am with CTV’s Beverley Thomson on April 12, 2016  http://ow.ly/10zmjd The next day (April 13, 2016), I talked with CBC’s Anna-Maria Tremonti on The Current in a wide-ranging conversation about my book.http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-april-13-2016-1.3533281/doctor-assisted-dying-how-canadians-grapple-with-death-1.3533328   - [A Q and A about A Good Death with Shannon Proudfoot in Maclean's](https://sandramartinwrites.com/a-q-and-a-about-a-good-death-with-shannon-proudfoot-in-macleans/):   http://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/qa-sandra-martin-on-how-to-legislate-doctor-assisted-death/ … - [I was on CTV's The Social on April 27](https://sandramartinwrites.com/i-was-on-ctvs-the-social-on-april-27/): The Social ‏@TheSocialCTV 23h23 hours ago The right to a “good death?” @semartin71 stops by to discuss physician-assisted death: http://bit.ly/1Wqvn4q  - [A Good Death on three bestseller lists](https://sandramartinwrites.com/a-good-death-on-three-bestseller-lists/): People ask me if I timed the release of A Good Death to coincide with the tabling of Bill C-14, the federal government’s proposed legislation on medical aid in dying.  The answer is no.  I researched and wrote my book based on the timetable established by the Supreme Court of Canada. It was pure coincidence that the Liberal government tabled its legislation on the day of my book launch. Nevertheless, I’m thrilled to tell you that A Good Death has debuted on three bestseller lists:  Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star.  Thanks to everybody who is buying […] - [My response to Bill C-14](https://sandramartinwrites.com/my-response-to-bill-c-14/): The federal government tabled its medical aid in dying legislation on April 12. Coincidentally that was the day of my book launch in Toronto at Ben McNally’s beautiful bookstore. Ben and his wife Lynn are old friends so it was a treat to have my book launch there. My husband and children were there along with many friends and Patrick Crean, my editor at HarperCollins Canada. I’ll be posting some pictures soon. It was a busy day, beginning with technical briefings on the proposed legislation, followed by a press conference. The government is in a tough spot as it has […] - [The First Review of A Good Death](https://sandramartinwrites.com/the-first-review-of-a-good-death/): Most writers wait anxiously for reviews of their books. I’m one of them. As the publication date approached, I was in paroxysms of anxiety. Would A Good Death even be reviewed was my first worry, quickly followed by what would the reviewer say? I forced my husband to read the review of A Good Death in The Globe online on Friday, April 8th. He joked that I wouldn’t want to read it, and then told me the good news. Michael Harris, a writer I don’t know, read my book with intelligence and empathy and wrote about it favourably. Here’s a […] - [Welcome](https://sandramartinwrites.com/introduction/): Thank for dropping in to my website. If you have been here before you are probably used to reading news and articles about my book, A Good Death, a social history of the right to die movement in Canada and around the world. I’m still writing about medically assisted death, but I am also interested in aging.  We begin aging at conception, perhaps sooner, and most of us want to extend that process through long, healthy and productive lives. How do we do that? What do we mean by old in an era when three score years and ten has lost […] ## Pages - [Re-inventing Old Age](https://sandramartinwrites.com/articles/re-inventing-old-age/): I’ve been writing about aging lately–what it means as longevity soars and centenarians have become the fastest growing demographic in the country Here are some recent articles: I went to the Galapagos to commune with giant tortoises and confronted ageism - [Home 2](https://sandramartinwrites.com/home-2/): Welcome Thanks for dropping into my website. I’d like to tell you some good news about A Good Death.  There are more details on other pages, but here are some highlights. The paperback of A Good Death arrived in bookstores in early May, 2017. I have updated the first chapter and added a new one, “So Close and Yet So Far.”   I write about the government’s Medical Assistance in Dying law, why it fails to comply with the Supreme Court decision in Carter, and what needs to be changed in the best interests of patients.  We still have a long way […] - [Awards](https://sandramartinwrites.com/awards/): 2017 A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices won the B.C. National Prize in Non-Fiction and was shortlisted for the Dafoe and the Donner Book Prizes. 2016-2017 Pelham Edgar Visiting Lecturer in the Humanities at Victoria College, University of Toronto 2016 A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices was named a best book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the CBC, The Walrus and the Hill Times. 2014 “Kim’s Choice” in the Globe and Mail was a finalist in the Long Feature category for the National Newspaper Awards. 2012 Working the Dead Beat: […] - [Granny Files](https://sandramartinwrites.com/granny-files/):   What’s better: relaxing or giving back?  Remembrance Day: looking back when your future has been destroyed by loss and sacrifice Whatever happened to the UNICEF boxes on Hallowe’en? I am more than a granny. Time to ditch the stereotypes. What my grandkids taught me about going back to school I decided to walk the Camino from Porto to Santiago. Was I nuts? Walking the Camino with Ann Kirkland reminded me of other articles I have written about Classical Pursuits.  Here is a link to my piece on Homer’s Iliad:  And here’s a link to my Classical Pursuits piece on […] - [Ramsey Talks](https://sandramartinwrites.com/ramsey-talks/): Many people tell me how lucky I am that my book, A Good Death is so timely. I think it is only fair to give credit where it is due—to Stephen Harper who ignored the Supreme Court ruling in Carter and then called the longest election campaign in modern history.  I’d also like to thank Justin Trudeau.  His government’s hugely problematic Bill C-14 will keep right to die and my book, top of mind, for many months. But let’s go back for a moment to Svend Robinson —remember him?  He’s the NDP politician who was with Sue Rodriguez when she […] - [Pictures from my book launch](https://sandramartinwrites.com/pictures-from-my-book-launch/) - [Events](https://sandramartinwrites.com/events/): Here are some upcoming events for A Good Death.  The Donner Prize in Public Policy, May 15, 2017 A Good death was shortlisted for this significant prize in public policy in April. Here’s a link to the announcement: Donner Prize  The J.W. Dafoe Book Prize, May 2017 A Good Death was shortlisted for this prestigious history prize in March.  I am delighted to be in such good company. Fingers crossed. Here’s a link to the announcement: Dafoe Prize April, 2017 The paperback of A Good Death will be published.  I have updated the first chapter and added a new one, […] - [Home](https://sandramartinwrites.com/home/):   - [Other Recent Articles](https://sandramartinwrites.com/articles/other-recent-articles/): My writing life was not all doom and gloom this past year. I wrote a cheeky first person account for Zoomer magazine about my blue hair. And I wrote an essay for Queen’s Quarterly about First World War poets Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, the journey from patriotism to despair and the generational divide that separated the old sages who were writing propaganda and the young writers slogging it out in gore and massacres in the trenches of northern France and Flanders. Here’s a link to a small piece I recently wrote for The Atlantic Monthly on Famous […] - [Right To Die](https://sandramartinwrites.com/articles/right-to-die/): As an obituary writer on the dead beat, I always thought I was writing about life not death. Death was only the precipitating incident to explore human character in all its variety—the noble as well as the sinister, the achievements as well as the foibles. But as the movement to legalize physician assisted death gained traction in Quebec and then slowly in the rest of the country, I became fascinated by the bravery of people who were determined to have autonomy and choices over the end of their lives. I began writing about people for whom life had become tyrannical […] - [Obituaries](https://sandramartinwrites.com/articles/obituaries/): Here’s an interview I did with CBC’s The Current about changing styles in obituaries. Here are a few of my favourite obituaries: Brian Mulroney, who was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada, died on February 29, 2024.(The Guardian) Queen Elizabeth II, the Monarch of Modernity has died. Allan MacDougall was co-founder of Raincoast Books and the Canadian publisher of Harry Potter. Tim Pitsiulik was re-making Inuit art Writer Mavis Gallant dies at age 91 Margaret Thatcher was a leader who knew her mind and stood her ground William Hutt: ‘He became effortless in his greatness’ Douglas Campbell: ‘A gloriously forthright, […] - [A Writer's Life](https://sandramartinwrites.com/articles/a-writers-life/): My first job in journalism was at Quill & Quire in the early 1970s. It was a much smaller magazine back then—I think there were three of us on the editorial side, so we all did a bit of everything. Mostly, though, I wrote news articles and profiles and assigned and edited the book review section. Looking back, it was good training for a journalist. From Q & Q, I moved to Books in Canada as managing editor and from there to the precarious life of a freelance magazine writer. There were many more magazines back then including weekly newspaper […] - [Rupert Brooke in Canada](https://sandramartinwrites.com/other-books/rupert-brooke-in-canada/): Edited by Sandra Martin and Roger Hall Peter Martin Associates, 1979 - [Where Were You: Memorable Events of the 20th Century](https://sandramartinwrites.com/other-books/where-were-you-memorable-events-of-the-20th-century/): By Sandra Martin and Roger Hall Methuen, 1981 - [The First Man in My Life: Daughters Write about Their Fathers](https://sandramartinwrites.com/other-books/the-first-man-in-my-life-daughters-write-about-their-fathers/): Edited by Sandra Martin Penguin 2007, 2009 A national bestseller Buy from Amazon > After my father died suddenly from a stroke at 85, I came across a picture of him and my son, who was then 25. Smiling happily into the camera, arms around each other, they share a strong family resemblance. Looking at that picture in my grief, I realized that they were exactly 60 years apart in age, the same gap, the equivalent of two generations, that separated my father from his father, a teetotalling Presbyterian born before Confederation in rural Prince Edward Island. That made me […] - [Articles](https://sandramartinwrites.com/articles/) - [Card Tricks: Boomers Banks and The Explosion of Plastic Credit](https://sandramartinwrites.com/other-books/card-tricks-boomers-banks-and-the-explosion-of-plastic-credit/): By Ann Finlayson and Sandra Martin Penguin 2003 Finalist for Best Business Book of the Year 2003 - [Great Canadian Lives: A Cultural History of Modern Canada through the Art of the Obit](https://sandramartinwrites.com/other-books/great-canadian-lives/): House of Anansi Press, 2014 paperback with an Epilogue Also named Working the Dead Beat: 50 Lives that Changed Canada House of Anansi Press, 2012, hardcover Longlisted for the RBCTaylor Prize, a Globe and Mail Top 100 book Buy all formats from House of Anansi Press > Working the Dead Beat is a history of obituary writing from poetic odes and laments to tweets and Facebook posts combined with profiles of 50 people who died in the first decade of the 20th century. There is no such thing as an uninteresting life—as I demonstrate in my book. My subjects, include the famous—Pierre […] - [Other Books](https://sandramartinwrites.com/other-books/) - [A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices](https://sandramartinwrites.com/a-good-death-making-the-most-of-our-final-choices/): by Sandra Martin From the Foreword by historian Margaret MacMillan: Sandra Martin is quite right. We don’t do dying and death well in our present age…. We have both individual and collective choices to make and we should be grateful to Martin for a clear and thoughtful guide to the recent history of dying and death in the West and to the changing attitudes and debates about how to deal with that part of life. The issues she raises range from policy ones to the moral.… Her journey has taken her from legal decisions to bedsides to assisted death clinics in Switzerland. It is both […] - [Contact](https://sandramartinwrites.com/contact/): Email me at info@sandramartinwrites.com. Facebook | Twitter Agent: Samantha Haywood - [Here's a short bio:](https://sandramartinwrites.com/about-the-author/): Short Bio Sandra Martin, an award-winning journalist, is the author of the critically acclaimed national bestseller, A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices.  Winner of the B.C. National Non-Fiction Award and a finalist for both the Dafoe Prize and the Donner Prize in Public Policy, A Good Death was named one of the best books of 2016 by The Globe and Mail, the CBC and several other media outlets. Margaret Atwood has called A Good Death “a timely and deeply felt account of assisted dying:  the histories, the issues” and included it on her list of best […] [comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)