Toronto author Sydney Hegele, formerly Sydney Warner Brooman, is the winner of the 2022 ReLit Award for short fiction for their debut book The Pump.

Hegele's book was among 15 nominees in the short fiction category of the awards, which honour the best Canadian books published by independent presses.

Hegele is a writer living in Toronto. Their story The Bottom was shortlisted for The Malahat Review's 2020 Open Season Awards. They have been published in American Chordata, Thorn Literary Magazine and other literary journals. The Pump is their first book.

"Winning the ReLit Award for Short Fiction is an incredible honour — one that I share with every single person who's read The Pump and found solace in it. My sincere hope is that readers will find themselves somewhere in The Pump: in a character who is queer or trans, isolated in their small Southern Ontario town; a character suffering with PTSD, or mourning a loss, or navigating complicated romantic, platonic and familial relationships." Hegele told CBC Books in an email.

"I wrote The Pump to make space for people like me, who haven't seen their own stories in the canon, and didn't think they were worth telling. It would be my dream for someone to set down this book feeling like the world needs their story, too. Because it really, truly does. "

The ReLit Awards, founded in 2000 by Newfoundland filmmaker and author Kenneth J. Harvey, are now managed by Harvey's daughter Katherine Alexandra Harvey.

"Congratulations to all the nominated short fiction authors and to Sydney for their incredible collection, Harvey said. "The Pump twisted us up, stayed with us, and that's what we like to see."

The 2022 ReLit Awards, known for releasing long shortlists, will celebrate poetry, short fiction and novel prizes this month. Each week, the shortlists for each genre will be announced on Monday, with the winners announced on Friday.

The shortlist for the novel category will be announced on May 16.