Canadian Writers' Trust increases value of prizes

Canadian Press
July 24, 2008

Toronto — The Writers' Trust Awards just got richer.

The awards are already among the richest fiction and non-fiction prizes in Canada, with past winners including Alice Munro, Rudy Wiebe and Austin Clarke.

The Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Writers' Trust Non-Fiction Prize will now award each winner $25,000 and finalists $3,500 (up from $15,000 and $2,000). The Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature will increase in value to $20,000 (up from $15,000).

A new award, the Writers' Trust Notable Author Award, will be created by merging two existing prizes: the Marian Engel Award for a female writer in mid-career and the Timothy Findley Award for a male writer in mid-career. The new prize will be worth $25,000 and won't be gender specific. Each of the awards was previously worth $15,000.

The eighth annual Writers' Trust Awards will be handed out on Nov. 17.