Dr. Robert Wright, a history professor at Trent University in Oshawa, has won the Canadian Authors Association (CAA) Lela Common Award for Canadian History for his book, Three Nights in Havana.

“Naturally I am thrilled,” Prof. Wright said in response to winning the award, valued at $2,500. “Three Nights in Havana was a big gamble - to see if I could write good professional history but also find a broad readership for my work. The book has had a great year, and the Lela Common Award is just icing on the cake.”

Three Nights in Havana is the first-ever portrait of the relationship between Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and Cuban President Fidel Castro. In the book, Prof. Wright provides political commentary around “three critical days when Canadian politics played on the international stage”, focusing on the often-controversial visit Prime Minister Trudeau paid to Cuba in 1976. The book was published by HarperCollins Canada in January 2007.

“The Department of History at Trent is particularly proud of the fact that Professor Wright's recent book, while making an original contribution to the study of Canadian-Cuban relations in the context of Cold War politics, has attracted a broader readership than most academic publications,” said Dr. Tim Stapleton, chair of the History Department at Trent University.

Robert Wright, Ph.D., has been teaching at Trent since 1985 and specializes in Canadian history, and foreign policy and sovereignty issues. He is the author of Virtual Sovereignty: Nationalism, Culture and the Canadian Question; Hip and Trivial: Youth Culture, Book Publishing and the Greying of Canadian Nationalism; and A World Mission: Canadian Protestantism and the Quest for a New World Order, 1918–1939.

The CAA Lela Common Award for Canadian History was established in 1997. Made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of Lela Florence Common, a long-time member of the Hamilton Branch of the Canadian Authors Association, the award is presented each year to honour a work of historical non-fiction on a Canadian topic.

Dr. Wright will be presented with the award during a gala banquet at the Canadian Authors Association’s annual CanWrite! Conference at the University of Alberta in Edmonton on Saturday July 5, 2008. As an award winner, Dr. Wright will also read from his book at a special event, open to the public, at the conference on the evening of Friday July 4, 2008.

Introduced in 1975, the CAA Literary Awards continue the association’s long tradition of honouring Canadian writers who achieve excellence without sacrificing popular appeal.

Prof. Wright was among five authors honoured with a 2008 CAA literary award. The finalists were chosen from among over 300 nominations from across Canada.