The Writers' Trust Engel Findley Award is given to a mid-career writer in recognition of a remarkable body of work, and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian literature. All Canadian writers are eligible. The winner, selected by a three-member, independent judging panel, is announced annually at the Writers’ Trust Awards. The prize is sponsored by the WT Prize Fund and Timothy Findley Estate.
Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award
Encouraging a remarkable mid-career author to keep on writing
Prize
Winner $25,000
Eligibility Criteria
- Canadian citizen or permanent resident
- Minimum three published books which are predominantly fiction
- Mid-career writer with a remarkable body of work
About the Award
2022 Winner
Shani
Mootoo
Jury Citation
“For three decades, Shani Mootoo has been writing some of this country’s most original and incandescent fiction. With deep understanding and a fearless devotion, she worries at the knot of identity and transformation revealing, in an ever-expanding way, the costs of pursuing one’s dreams. Her novels and stories transport us. Set variously against the lushness of the tropics and the stark relief of Canadian winters, they peel back the layers of emotion experienced by those who resist cultural, racial, and sexual hegemony: people whose identities and upbringings are at perilous odds with their desires. These books are alive, audacious, and full of craft; it’s a body of work that inspires us with all its care and unselfconscious trajectory.”
“It’s incredible to be told, when it feels like you’re bumping along in the middle of nowhere, that you’re on the right path. It feels like a big, beautiful lifeline.”
– Billie Livingston
2017 Engel Findley Award winner
- Awards
- Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
- Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
- Balsillie Prize for Public Policy
- Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing
- Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life
- Latner Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize
- Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People
- Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award
- RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers
- Writers’ Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize
- Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers
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