By Canadian Press

Writers’ Trust of Canada to hand out seven book prizes, cash

Nov 19, 2024 | 8:59 AM

TORONTO — The Writers’ Trust of Canada is set to hand out seven awards and more than $330,000 in prize money at its annual awards bash tonight.

Prizes include outstanding debut book by an LGBTQ2S+ emerging writer, best non-fiction and fiction books, and career achievement awards.

Poet-novelists Canisia Lubrin and Fawn Parker are among the authors shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, worth $60,000.

Lubrin, the Whitby, Ont., writer who won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2020, made the list for “Code Noir,” her debut work of fiction, and Parker is in the running for “Hi, It’s Me,” about a woman coming to terms with the death of her mother.

Sheung-King, the pen name for Richmond, B.C.- and Hong Kong-based author Aaron Tang, made the list for “Batshit Seven,” about a detached millennial living through the Hong Kong protests.

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Finalists also include Edmonton’s Conor Kerr for his crime thriller “Prairie Edge” and Montreal’s Éric Chacour for “What I Know About You,” translated from French by Pablo Strauss of Quebec City.

Both Kerr and Chacour made the long list for the Giller Prize, while Lubrin, Parker and Sheung-King withdrew their names from Giller consideration over lead sponsor Scotiabank’s investment in an Israeli arms manufacturer.

The $100,000 Giller Prize was awarded last night to Toronto poet-novelist Anne Michaels, for her novel “Held,” a multigenerational look at war and trauma spanning more than a century.

At the Giller ceremony, Michaels appealed for “unity” in Canada’s arts community as protesters gathered outside the gala to chant slogans and wave banners in a boycott.

The ceremony itself saw no disruptions after last year’s televised gala was crashed by pro-Palestinian demonstrators just as the big prize was announced.

Ongoing protests since then saw dozens of Canadian authors pulled their books from Giller prize contention. They have called on the Giller Foundation to drop sponsors with ties to Israel, including Scotiabank due to its stake in Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems.

The Writers Trust has not drawn such attention.

Its awards ceremony is set to be held at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio and hosted by Canadian playwright and performer Charlie Petch.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.

Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press