Zalika Reid-Benta and Britta Badour among finalists for 2024 Trillium Book Awards
CBC Books | Posted: May 7, 2024 2:27 PM | Last Updated: May 8, 2024
The prize recognizes the best fiction and poetry books from writers in Ontario
Zalika Reid-Benta and Britta Badour are among the finalists for the 2024 Trillium Book Awards presented by Ontario Creates.
Established in 1987, the prize annually recognizes the best book and best poetry collection from writers in Ontario.
The winners in both the English and French categories of the Trillium Book Award will receive $20,000, while the winner of the poetry category will receive $10,000.
Reid-Benta is shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for River Mumma.
River Mumma is a magical realist story inspired by Jamaican folklore. The main character is a young Black woman. Alicia, having a quarter-life crisis while adventuring through the streets of Toronto. One evening, River Mumma, the Jamaican water deity, appears to inform Alicia that she has 24 hours to find her missing comb in the city.
Why River Mumma chose her is a mystery. Alicia barely remembers the legends she was told about the deity as a child. Still, Alicia embarks on her quest through the city which turns into a journey through time — to find herself, but also what the river carries.
Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based author who explores race, identity and culture through the lens of second-generation Caribbean Canadians in her work. The Columbia MFA graduate's debut novel Frying Plantain was on the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist. CBC Books named Reid-Benta a writer to watch in 2019 and she served as jury chair for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
LISTEN | How staying true to herself helped Zalika Reid-Benta become an award-winning author:
Badour is shortlisted for the Trillium Book Award for poetry for Wires that Sputter.
Wires That Sputter is an intimate collection of poetry which plays with form and punctuation. Badour explores pop culture, sports, family dynamics and Black liberation.
Badour, better known as Britta B., is an artist, public speaker and poet living in Toronto. She was also the recipient of the 2021 Breakthrough Artist Award from the Toronto Arts Foundation. She teaches spoken word performance at Seneca College. In 2023, Badour made the CBC Poetry Prize longlist.
She was named one of CBC Books' 2023 writers to watch.
LISTEN | Britta Badour on The Next Chapter:
Other notable writers on the shortlists include Nina Dunic and A. Light Zachary.
Dunic's The Clarion is a finalist for the Trillium Book Award.
The Clarion is a novel about two siblings struggling to find a sense of purpose and belonging. Peter is a trumpet player and kitchen staff and his sister Stasi is making her attempt to work in corporate which ultimately leads to therapy. As the siblings endure the many trials and tribulations of their generation like promotions and absent lovers, can they find their sense of self and keep their connection strong?
Dunic is a freelance writer and journalist living in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. She has been longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize four times: in 2023 for The Artist, in 2022 for Youth, in 2020 for Bodies and in 2019 for an earlier version of Bodies.
Zachary is nominated for the Trillium Book Award for poetry for their debut collection, More Sure. It's about the process of finding oneself again and again through time, experience and community. The poet explores themes of queerness, neurodivergence, labour, love and family.
Zachary is a writer, editor and teacher living in Toronto and Grande-Digue, N.B. More Sure is their debut poetry collection. Zachary was longlisted for the 2021 CBC Poetry Prize for their poems Two Girls and Why bury yourself in this place you ask. The full shortlists for the 2023 Trillium Awards are below.
Trillium Book Award:
- Sleep is Now a Foreign Country: Encounters with the Uncanny by Mike Barnes
- The Clarion by Nina Dunic
- North of Middle Island by D.A. Lockhart
- Anecdotes by Kathryn Mockler
- River Mumma by Zalika Reid-Benta
Trillium Book Award for Poetry:
- Wires that Sputter by Britta Badour
- More Sure by A. Light Zachary
- Continuity Errors by Catriona Wright
Prix Trillium:
- La fin de nos programmes by Martin Bélanger
- Plonge, Freya, vole ! by Andrée Christensen
- L'aurore martyrise l'enfant by David Ménard
- Le parfum de la baleine by Paul Ruban
- Vivre ou presque by Nicolas Weinberg
The winners will be announced on June 20, 2024.
Last year's winners were Stuart Ross for The Book of Grief and Hamburgers and Sanna Wani for My Grief, the Sun.
Corrections:- This post has been updated to reflect the correct pronouns for A. Light Zachary. May 8, 2024 11:41 AM