Melanie Mah is the winner of this year’s Trillium Book Award, which annually recognizes the best work published by Ontario authors, it was announced on Tuesday.
Melanie Mah is the winner of this year's Trillium Book Award, which annually recognizes the best work published by Ontario authors, it was announced on Tuesday.
She was awarded the $20,000 prize on the strength of her debut novel, The Sweetest One, which tells the story of Chrysler Wong, a teenage girl who believes in a family curse that will kill her – as it has three of her siblings – if she leaves her small Alberta town.
The other finalists – chosen by a jury comprised of writers Cherie Dimaline, Soraya Peerbaye and James Grainger – were André Alexis for his novel The Hidden Keys; Susan Holbrook for her poetry collection Throaty Wipes; Danila Botha for her short-story collection For All The Men (and Some of the Women) I've Known; Leesa Dean for her story collection Waiting for the Cyclone; and Kamal Al-Solaylee for his book of non-fiction: Brown: What Being Brown in the World Today Means (to Everyone).
Previous winners of the prize, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, include Alice Munro, Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje.
Jean Boisjoli won the $20,000 French-language Trillium Book Award for La Mesure du temps, while Pierre-Luc Belanger won the $10,000 Trillium Book Award for Children's Literature for Ski, Blanche et avalanche.
Meaghan Strimas won the $10,000 Trillium Book Award for Poetry for her third collection, Yes or Nope.
Mark Medley