Anthony Oliveira (Mike Meehan), Martha Baillie (Jonno Lightstone), and Sheung-King (Maari Sugawara).

Writers Anthony Oliveira, Martha Baillie, and Sheung-King are among the winners of the 2024 Writers’ Trust Awards.

The winners of the three annual book prizes, as well as the winners of the four annual awards that celebrate writers for their bodies of work, were announced at a ceremony in Toronto on Nov. 19, hosted by playwright and performer Charlie Petch. More than $330,000 in prize money was awarded over the seven awards.

Oliveira was named the winner of the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers for Dayspring (Strange Light/Penguin Random House Canada), a depiction of the life of Jesus Christ reimagined by the apostle John. Oliveira was one of three authors shortlisted for this year’s prize. In their citation, the jury wrote that Oliveira “transforms scripture into a poetic and erotic queer love story.” The prize was founded in 2007 in honour of the late Dayne Ogilvie by Robin Pacific, who awarded Oliveira the prize. This year, the purse of the prize was raised from $10,000 to $12,000. It continues to receive community support, including an investment from last year’s winner, Anuja Varghese.

In his acceptance speech, Oliveira said it was an honour to win a prize in Dayne Ogilvie’s name, and spoke of reading his work in Xtra as a young closeted queer person. He also spoke of the importance of writers speaking up in the current moment. “We all need to stand up, we all need to be loud, we all need not to comply in advance,” he said.

Baillie was awarded the $75,000 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction for There Is No Blue (Coach House Books), a book of essays in which she writes about the deaths of her mother, father, and sister. The jury called the book “an elegy to the beautiful fight to keep a family together and an ode to the devastating loss when things fall apart, [that] rattles the bones of what it is to be in imperfect relationships with the people we are tied to by birth and blood.” Baillie was one of five finalists for this year’s prize.

Sheung-King received the $60,000 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction for Batshit Seven (Penguin Canada/PRHC), a novel the jury called “an audacious reinvention of the novel for a dystopian age.” It was one of five books shortlisted for this year’s prize.

Poet Rita Wong was named the recipient of this year’s Latner Griffin Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize, a $60,000 prize that honours a mid-career poet for their body of work and future contributions to Canadian poetry.

Sara O’Leary, the author of a number of acclaimed picture books, was awarded the $25,000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People.

Novelist Madeleine Thien was named the winner of the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award, awarded to a mid-career writer who works predominantly in fiction. In her acceptance speech, Thien said she would be donating her prize money to the Writers’ Trust Woodcock Fund Grant, the Palestine Children’s Fund, and the Lebanon Red Cross.

Playwright, filmmaker, radio documentarian, and multi-media artist Marie Clements was named the recipient of the Matt Cohen Award, the purse of which has been raised to $40,000 from $25,000. In their citation, the jury wrote that Clements “consistently creates multidimensional works that challenge and reframe colonial history.”

In her acceptance speech, Clements thanked every writer she’s ever known. “I believe writers are change makers,” she said. “By writing it, by putting it in ink, by putting it in blood, it’s now impossible to say you didn’t know it.”