Award-winning poet and writer Tim Lilburn has been named the winner of the 2024 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence.

The $10,000 annual prize, administered by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, honours a Saskatchewan writer with a substantial body of literary work who has had a significant impact on writing in the province.

Lilburn, who was born in Regina, Sask., and lives in the Bowker Creek watershed W̱SÁNEĆ territory on Vancouver Island, is the author of 12 books of poetry and four essay collections. His poetry has won the Governor General’s Award and the Canadian Authors’ Association Award, among others. Lilburn has taught at the University of Victoria, the University of Saskatchewan, St. Peter’s College, and Middlebury College. He has been poetry editor for Grain and was one of the founders of Saskatoon-based Jackpine Press.

“For nearly 40 years, Tim Lilburn has made profound and indelible contributions to Canadian culture,” the jury said in their citation. His award-winning poetry and “prescient” work on environmental ethics “has added to Lilburn’s esteemed reputation as a poet, teacher, and mentor, and we are privileged to award him the 2024 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence.”