The Writers’ Trust of Canada has announced the recipients of four $25,000 prizes for career writers: Dennis Lee, Kerri Sakamoto, Armand Garnett Ruffo, and Marianne Dubuc. Though the live reception where the authors would traditionally accept their awards was cancelled because of COVID-19, interviews with the winners will be posted on the Writers’ Trust’s Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The awards and their winners follow.

Dennis Lee (Susan Perly)

Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life
Jury: Patsy Aldana, Anita Rau Badami, and Wayne Grady

Dennis Lee, the Governor General’s Literary Award-winning poet best known for the classic children’s collection Alligator Pie, won this award for a senior writer working in poetry or prose.

Kerri Sakamoto

The Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award
Jury: Timothy Taylor, Souvankham Thammavongsa, and Kathleen Winter

Kerri Sakamoto, author of novels The Electrical Field, One Hundred Million Hearts, and The Floating City, won the award for mid-career fiction writing.

Armand Garnett Ruffo

Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize
Jury: Marilyn Dumont, Susan Glickman, and Kaie Kellough

Armand Garnett Ruffo, the author of five collections of poetry inspired by his Ojibwe cultural heritage, has won the award for a poet in mid-career.

Marianne Dubuc

Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People
Jury: Caroline Adderson, Kyo Maclear, and Susan Perren

Marianne Dubuc, the francophone children’s author and illustrator whose most recent book What Do You Want, Little Friend? received a starred-review from Q&Q, received this award for children’s literature.