2024 Writers’ Trust Award Winners
November 28th, 2024
Each year, Writers’ Trust of Canada awards eleven prizes to authors across the country. The following BC-based authors were able to bag some of the awards that were presented.
Sheung-King (at right) was the recipient of the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for his book, Batshit Seven (Penguin Canada $33.95). This book follows Glen Wu, also known as Glue, a disillusioned millennial teaching ESL in Hong Kong during the protests. Uninterested in his job, he spends most of his time partying and using drugs. As the city he grew up in is torn apart by political turmoil and repression, Glue’s life spirals further into disconnection. He drifts through confrontations with a drug dealer friend, tensions with his sister, a dysfunctional relationship, and reflections on colonialism. The novel highlights his inner conflict as Hong Kong faces repression, leading Glue to an unsettling and violent conclusion. Combining millennial apathy with the personal and political collapse of a city, Batshit Seven critiques imperialism and modern consumer culture while capturing the emotional complexities of a generation.
Wendy H. Wong
Kelowna-based Wendy H. Wong won the Balsillie Prize for Public Policy for her book, We, the Data: Human Rights in the Digital Age (The MIT Press $28.60). Her book calls for extending human rights to account for the impact of data in our lives. In today’s data-driven world, Wong argues that our autonomy, dignity and equality are at risk as data collection and tracking become pervasive. She emphasizes that we are not just passive sources of data but active participants, and current policies fail to reflect this reality. Wong explores key issues such as data rights, facial recognition technology, and posthumous rights, advocating for a right to data literacy. She insists we must act as stakeholders to hold tech companies and governments accountable. Drawing parallels to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Wong envisions a new framework to protect human rights in the digital age, ensuring that data serves humanity rather than exploits it.
Marie Clements
The Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life was presented to Marie Clements from Galiano Island for her body of work. The 2024 Committee that included Patsy Aldana, Michelle Good, Wayne Grady, Sylvia D. Hamilton, and Hal Wake had this to say about Clements’ work: “As a playwright, filmmaker, radio documentarian, and multi-media artist, Marie Clements consistently creates multidimensional works that challenge and reframe colonial history. By rearticulating false narratives, Clements exposes audiences to the disconnect between the myths underpinning colonialism and the actual experiences of Indigenous peoples. She fearlessly addresses many forms of colonial violence that cast an oppressive shadow of misrepresentation and thwart reconciliation by deepening the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Clements continues to demonstrate brilliance, acuity, and intensity in her work in the best tradition of teaching through artistic expression.”
Rita Wong
The Latner Griffin Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize was awarded to Rita Wong for her body of work. The 2024 Jury that comprised of Julie Pellissier-Lush, Ayaz Pirani, and Laisha Rosnau had this to say about Wong’s work: “Rita Wong’s immediate and necessary poetry takes the breath away. Wong is a poet of total commitment. Her poetry lives on the page, and she sometimes claims the margins as well. We can feel her heart in her words in ways that are both playful and blunt, razor-sharp and lyrically beautiful. Frankly political and decolonial, Wong accompanies her warrior’s poetry with intense meditations on heritage and ecology, often in the same moment. Wong’s body of work is remarkable, transformative, and inspiring.”
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