Jury Citation
“In ‘The Department of Unjust Histories,’ Rebecca Peng delivers a shrewd and quick-witted satire. Her story is a commentary that declines to name sides, instead inviting readers to examine how frenetic moralizing leads us to betray ourselves. The main character is tasked with preserving history without ever endorsing past wrongs. Peng’s prose is sharp and uncompromising, filled with insight and stolid humour. As the story progresses with growing tension and absurdity, it does not lose sight of its central tenets: that people cannot help but cling to the past and that performative absolution will never set us free.”—2026 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers Short Fiction Jury (Jamaluddin Aram, Jen Neale, Nathan Whitlock)
