Charles Montgomery

Charles Montgomery won the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction in 2005 for his first book, The Last Heathen (2004), later republished in the United States as The Shark God. The book chronicled his journey through Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands in search of the legacy of Victorian missionaries, including his great-grandfather, bishop Henry Montgomery. Born in 1968 in North Vancouver, British Columbia, he graduated from the University of Victoria in 1991 with a degree in geography before building a career in magazine writing.

His 2013 book, Happy City, examined the intersection of urban design and the science of happiness, drawing on psychology, neuroscience, and urban planning to argue that cities can be retrofitted for wellbeing. It was shortlisted for the 2014 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction. His magazine work has appeared in Dwell, Outside, Canadian Geographic, enRoute, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, and The South China Morning Post.

Montgomery has advised and lectured planners, students, and decision-makers across Canada, the US, and England. He has collaborated with the BMW Guggenheim Lab and the Museum of Vancouver on social experiments that help citizens reshape their relationships with each other and their cities.

Among his honors are four Western Canada Magazine Awards, a 2004 silver National Magazine Award, the 2003 Lowell Thomas Silver Award from the American Society of Travel Writers, and a 2007 Citation of Merit from the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society for public awareness of climate change science.