Today, the Canada Council for the Arts announced the 2012 Governor General’s Literary Award finalists. Among the non-fiction finalists is Leonardo and The Last Supper by Ross King.

Born in North Portal, Saskatchewan, and now based in the UK, King is one of Canada’s bestselling authors on art and architecture. He has lectured widely in both Europe and North America, including at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Smithsonian and the Frick Collection. Translated into more than a dozen languages, his books have been nominated for a National Book Critics’ Circle Award, the Charles Taylor Prize and the National Award for Arts Writing.

Leonardo and The Last Supper, released in Canada on September 25, shares the story behind the creation of Da Vinci’s best-known painting. It is both a record of Leonardo’s final five years in Milan and a biography of one of the most famous works of art ever painted. Readers will find out if King triumphs at the Governor General’s Awards on November 28, when an awards ceremony takes place at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

King is currently participating in the Canadian Art Foundation’s International Speaker Series, with lectures happening at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto on October 3 and at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax on October 4.

For more information about seeing this Governor General’s Literary Award finalist talk about his book live, please visit canadianart.ca/events.