Vicky Metcalfe Award for Children's Literature: 2024 Winner announced

There is a wonderfully long list of awards announced annually by the Writers' Trust of Canada. They include the Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Award, the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, and the Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers. Some awards focus on a specific book while others are given to writers based on their body of works. Last night, the awards were announced at an event at the CBC Glenn Gould Studio at which more than $330,000 was handed out to 7 award winners. Among those generous awards is the Vicky Metcalfe Award for Children's Literature which includes a $25,000 prize sponsored by the Metcalfe Foundation.

 

This year's winner of the

 

 Vicky Metcalfe Award for Children's Literature 

 

goes to

 

Sara O'Leary

 

for a body of work which includes the following books:

The Little Book of the Little Brontës (Tundra, 2023) Illus. by Briony May Smith

A Kid is a Kid is a Kid (Groundwood, 2021) Illus. by Qin Leng

Percy's Museum (Groundwood, 2021) Illus. by Carmen Mok

Night Walk (Groundwood, 2020) Illus. by Ellie Arscott

A Family is a Family is a Family (Groundwood, 2016) Illus. by Qin Leng

When I Was Small (Simply Read, 2011) Illus. by Julie Morstad

Where You Came From (Simply Read, 2008) Illus. by Julie Morstad

When You Were Small (Simply Read, 2005) Illus. by Julie Morstad

The event, which was live streamed, can be viewed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/live/EXe9ANrSQSE or you can check out all the award announcements the Writers' Trust of Canada website at https://www.writerstrust.com/events/writers-trust-awards/.

 

 

Congratulations to Sara O'Leary and all award winners of the Writers' Trust of Canada Awards for 2024.

 

👏👏👏 

Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature (2011)

Congratulations to winner Iain Lawrence! 

 

Sponsored by the Metcalf Foundation and judged by a jury composed of Deirdre Baker, Ronald Jobe, and Julie Johnston, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature recognizes a writer of a body of work in children's literature.  This year, on November 1st, the Writers' Trust of Canada awarded the $20,000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Children’s Literature to Iain Lawrence. 

 

Check out Iain's website at Iain Lawrence for full bio, bibliography and details.

His series The High Seas Trilogy (The Wreckers, The Buccaneers, The Smugglers) and The Curse of the Jolly Stone Trilogy (The Convicts, The Cannibals, The Castaways) have grabbed many readers with his distinctive protagonists and suspenseful adventures.  Other titles, including The Giant-Slayer, Gemini Summer (a personal favourite) and The Séance take us into the more contemporary settings of North America in the 20th century, still knitting elements of history with the trials of young people, creating great stories of suspense and atmosphere.   The Winter Pony (Delacorte, 2011) has only been out a couple of weeks and is already lauded as a valuable contribution to children's literature.


Full details about this award and the citation of Lawrence's contribution can be found at 2011 Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature.

The Writers' Trust of Canada Awards

The Writers' Trust of Canada, whose mandate is to advance, nurture and celebrate Canadian writers and writing, presents 10 prizes annually to writers of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children's literature. I've highlighted the only award specifically for writing for children.

• Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature: awarded to the author of a body of work in children's literature

• Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction: literary excellence in the category of nonfiction, which includes, among other forms, personal or journalistic essays, history, biography, memoirs, commentary, and criticism, both social and political

• Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize: Canadian writers of exceptional talent for the year's best novel or short-story collection

• Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing: annually to a non-fiction book that captures a political subject of interest to Canadian readers and enhances our understanding of the issue

• Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award: on a writer's body of work (no less than three works of literary merit which are predominantly fiction)

•  Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life: recognizes a lifetime of distinguished work by a Canadian writer, working in either poetry or prose in either French or English

• Journey Prize: annually to a new and developing writer of distinction for a short story published in a Canadian literary publication

•  RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers: annual award is given to a writer below the age of 35 who has published poetry or prose but has not yet been published in book form

• Dayne Ogilvie Grant: an emerging Canadian gay or lesbian writer who demonstrates great promise through a body of work of exceptional quality

• Writers' Trust Distinguished Contribution Award: annually to an individual or an organization in recognition of their long-standing involvement with the Writers' Trust of Canada

Writers' Trust of Canada Awards