Lubrin lands Carol Shields fiction prize

Winnipeg Free Press

03-05-2025

Whitby, Ont.-based author Canisia Lubrin has won the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, worth US$150,000 (around $207,000), for her short-story collection Code Noir.
In addition to the cash prize, which awards fiction written by women and non-binary writers in the U.S. and Canada, the St. Lucia-born Lubrin also recieves a five-night stay at the Fogo Island Inn.
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Code Noir is also a finalist for the Writers' Union of Canada's Danuta Gleed Literary Award, a prize awarded to the best short-fiction collection by a Canadian author. The other finalists are Vincent Anioke for Perfect Little Angels, Billy-Ray Belcourt for Coexistence, Shashi Bhat for Death By a Thousand Cuts and Nicola Winstanley for Smoke.
The winner of the $10,000 prize will be announced in early June.
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Winnipeg poet (and Canadian poet laureate) Chimwemwe Undi's debut collection Scientific Marvel has made the long list for two prizes presented by the League of Canadian Poets.
Undi is up for the 2024 Gerald Lampert Award for a debut work of poetry as well as the 2024 Raymond Souster Award for a new book of poetry by a League member. Also up for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is Winnipeg's E. McGregor for the collection What Fills Your House Like Smoke.
The short lists will be revealed Wednesday, and the winners of each of the $2,000 prizes announced on May 14. For a complete list of longlisted poets see poets.ca/longlist2025.
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More books prize news: the five finalists for the Writers' Trust of Canada Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing have been announced, with subjects ranging from residential schools to health care to the rise and fall of Justin Trudeau and beyond.
The finalists for the $25,000 prize are: Canada's Prime Ministers and the Shaping of a National Identity by Raymond B. Blake; The Prince: The Turbulent Reign of Justin Trudeau by Stephen Maher; Health for All: A Doctor's Prescription for a Healthier Canada by Jane Philpott; The Adaptable Country: How Canada Can Survive the Twenty-First Century by Alasdair Roberts; and The Knowing by Tanya Talaga. The winner will be announced on Sept. 24.
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A trio of book launches are on tap at McNally Robinson Booksellers' Grant Park location over the next week.
University of Manitoba labour studies and sociology professor David Camfield launches his latest, Red Flags: A Reckoning with Communism for the Future of the Left, tonight at 7 p.m.
Camfield traces the history of communism through the U.S.S.R., China and Cuba through to how today's left is needing to reckon with some uneasy truths if a liberatory alternative to capitalism is to come to be. Camfield will be joined by Andrew Loewen and Tami Gadir.
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Ottawa-born former first lady of Iceland Eliza Reid returns to Manitoba to launch her debut work of fiction, Death on the Island.
Set on the remote Westman Islands off Iceland's mainland, an ambassador's wife must unpack how and why her husband's deputy was poisoned at a dinner party. Reid, who also wrote 2022's Secrets of the Sprakkar, will be joined at Sunday afternoon launch, which gets underway at 2 p.m., by former CBC host Shelagh Rogers. She'll also launch Death on the Island in Gimli at the Unitarian Church (76 2 Ave.) today at 3:30 p.m.
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On Friday, Montreal-based Madeliene Thien launches her new novel The Book of Records at 7 p.m., where she'll be joined in conversation by Jenny Heijun Wills.
Thien's new novel is her first in nine years, following her Governor General's Literary Award-winning novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing. In the sprawling The Book of Records, a teen and her ailing father navigate a building called The Sea, which seems exists outside space and time. As migrants come and go, the teen yearns to learn about her past and how she got to The Sea.
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Poets, sharpen your pencils (if you in fact use pencils): the next edition of the Speaking Crow open-mic event takes place Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Saint Boniface Library (131 Provencher Blvd.); those wishing to read should show up early.
This month's featured poet is Ottawa's Christine McNair.
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Ben SigurdsonLiterary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press's literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press's editing team before being posted online or published in print. It's part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
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