Writers' Trust Announces 2024 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award Finalists for Fiction & Poetry

Today the Writers’ Trust of Canada announced the finalists in both the Fiction and Poetry categories for the prestigious RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers. The prizes, which in recent years removed their prior restriction of being open only to writers under 35 years old, are now open to all writers who are unpublished in book form.

Named after celebrated author and mentor Bronwen Wallace, these prizes are offered in an effort to amplify the voices of emerging authors at a crucial stage in their writing lives. This has often led to national exposure for their work, and to finding publishers for collections of fiction and poetry. 

Finalists all receive a handsome $2,500 sum for their work, with the winners receiving $10,000. Those winners will be announced in an awards ceremony to celebrate all of the authors, which will be held on June 3rd in Toronto.

Read the 2024 shortlisted works in advance by clicking the links to each author profile:

Poetry Finalists

◤ Ashleigh A. Allen for “Balcony buffalo”
◤ Faith Paré for “Selections from ‘a fine African head’”
◤ Sneha Subramanian Kanta for “Hiraeth”

Short Fiction Finalists

◥ Henry Heavyshield for Our Rez Anomaly
◥ Nayani Jensen for Like Rabbits
◥ Reid Kerr Keller for ON VENLAFAXINE AND GHOSTS

The 2024 poetry finalists were selected by Derek Beaulieu, Kama La Mackerel, and Joanna Lilley, who read 215 submissions. And the 2024 short fiction finalists were selected by Jessica Johns, Maria Reva, and Jack Wang, who read 252 submissions.

About the Award

Bronwen Wallace (1945–1989) was a poet, short story writer, and mentor to many aspiring authors as a creative writing instructor at Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College in Kingston, ON. This prize was established in her honour in 1994 by a group of friends and colleagues. Wallace felt that writers should have more opportunities for recognition early in their careers. This annual award is presented to two writers — one each in the categories of poetry and short fiction — who have been published in literary journals or anthologies but have yet to publish in book form. Past winners include: Michael Crummey, Alissa York, Sonnet L’Abbé, Alison Pick, Noor Naga, Maria Reva, and John Elizabeth Stintzi. 

About Writers’ Trust

The Writers’ Trust of Canada is a charitable organization that seeks to advance, nurture, and celebrate Canadian writers and writing through a portfolio of programs including 12 national literary awards, financial grants, career development initiatives for emerging writers, and a writers’ residency. Writers’ Trust programming is designed to champion excellence in Canadian writing, to improve the status of writers, and to create connections between writers and readers. Canada’s writers receive more financial support from Writers’ Trust than from any other non-governmental organization in the country. Additional information is available at writerstrust.com.