Tanya Talaga, journalist and author of the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize winner Seven Fallen Feathers, has chosen Brantford, Ont. writer Alicia Elliott as the recipient of the $10,000 RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award.

The recipient of RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award is selected annually by the winner of the RBC Taylor Prize. Talaga will mentor Elliott as part of the prize, which is intended to support a writer as they work toward the first draft of a book.

"Alicia is the voice of our youth, the next generation. She is lyrical, heart-felt and she tells searing truths of Canada today, truths we all need to listen to," said Talaga.

Elliott is a Tuscarora writer who has been published in the Malahat Review, the Globe and Mail, CBC Arts and many other publications. In 2016, she won a National Magazine Award for her essay, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground. She is currently nominated for a 2018 National Magazine Award for her piece, On Seeing and Being Seen: The Difference Between Writing With Empathy and Writing With Love.

"I've been in a bit of a daze since I heard the news. It's incredibly humbling to be honoured with the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writer Award and especially to be chosen by someone I admire as much as Tanya. What a gift," said Elliott in a news release.

Talaga is the 2017-2018 Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy and will be delivering the 2018 CBC Massey Lectures.

Past recipients of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award include Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Adnan Khan and Iain Reid.