Carrianne Leung has won $10,000 for 2018 book That Time I Loved You, her "exquisite and original collection" of short fiction.

Leung was awarded the Danuta Gleed Literary Award, which annually honours the best first collection of short fiction. The award is administered by the Writers' Union of Canada.

The Toronto-based writer set her collection in 1970s Scarborough, Ont., trespassing quietly on the residents of a multiracial neighbourhood, which is reeling in the aftermath of a series of suicides.

"In That Time I Loved You, Leung skillfully captures the desires and anguish that lie beneath the surface of seemingly peaceful suburban lives," said jury members Heather O'Neill, Ayelet Tsabari and Richard Van Camp in a press release.

"These beautifully conceived linked stories tell of love and secrets, racism and violence, and reveal the fragility of belonging and the pain of growing up. This is an exquisite and original collection, told with great empathy and glimmering with magic and hope."

That Time I Loved You was on the Canada Reads 2019 longlist.

Leung is also the author of the YA book The Wonderous Woo.

Finalists Paige Cooper, author of Zolitude, and Erin Frances Fisher, author of That Tiny Life, will each receive $500.