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Encouraging the best debut LGBTQ2S+ writers in Canada

Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers

Highlights

GuidelinesPrize History

Prize

Winner $12,000
Finalists $2,000

Shortlist Announcement

Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Questions? Please contact:

Devon Jackson, Senior Program Manager
djackson@writerstrust.com

About the Prize

The Dayne Ogilvie Prize is presented annually to a Canadian writer from the LGBTQ2S+ community for a debut book in any genre.

An increase to the prize purse from $10,000 to $12,000 was announced at this year’s awards event. The Dayne Ogilvie Prize was founded by Robin Pacific and is supported by the Dayne Ogilvie Endowment Fund, Anuja Varghese and the Writers' Trust Prize Fund.

2024 Winner

Anthony Oliveira

Dayspring

Strange Light

Jury Citation

“Ambitiously and audaciously, Anthony Oliveira transforms scripture into a poetic and erotic queer love story. Dayspring crosses centuries and genres, bends fan fiction into dazzling verse, and mixes the sacred and the profane with the sublime and the perverse. In a sly nod to red letter bibles, Oliveira uses blood-coloured ink to render the words of Jesus, who emerges as fallible and playful, horny and tender. With the heft of a tome, the lure of a page-turner, and the sweep of an epic poem, Dayspring is an effervescent and poignant work about love and humanity.” — 2024 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers jury (Jillian Christmas, Adam Garnet Jones, and Hazel Jane Plante) 

2024 Finalists

Jury

A jury composed of authors Jillian Christmas, Adam Garnet Jones, and Hazel Jane Plante selected this year’s finalists from 26 titles submitted by 21 publishing imprints.

The recognition gives a lot of agency, power, and love back to those of us who are producing and writing right now.

– Joshua Whitehead

2018 Dayne Ogilivie Prize finalist

Prize History

Robin Pacific established this prize in 2007 to honour her late friend, Dayne Ogilvie, who was a respected editor, writer, literary manager, and passionate lover of all the arts. The Dayne Ogilvie Prize rewards LGBTQ2S+ writers of any age for a debut book in any genre. From 2007 to 2021, it was given to writers in the developing stages of their careers and whose body of work demonstrated great literary potential. Past winners of the prize include Michael V. Smith, Zoe Whittall, Farzana Doctor, Kai Cheng Thom, Jillian Christmas, francesca ekwuyasi and, most recently, Anuja Varghese.

Sponsor

The Dayne Ogilvie Prize was founded by Robin Pacific and is supported by the Dayne Ogilvie Endowment Fund, Anuja Varghese and the Writers' Trust Prize Fund.