TORONTO – This Thursday, June 20, the Trillium Literary Awards ceremony took place at Arcadian Court in Toronto, rewarding literary works by Ontario authors in French and English. In the French-speaking category, it is Live or almost by Nicolas Weinberg who won this high distinction.
Organized by Ontario Creates, it was the 37th edition of the event created in 1987 by the Canadian government to recognize literary excellence and the diversity of Ontario writers and writings. The ceremony was opened with a speech from the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, the Honorable Edith Dumont who highlighted the importance of reading: “reading gives access to the world” as Jean-Marc Dalpé says, she quoted.
In the French-speaking category, Nicolas Weinberg therefore succeeds Gilles Lacombe, winner in 2023 with his work Circe of the Swallows.
“Thank you very much for this award,” said the winner. It’s amazing for me as an immigrant to get this award. This is also my first publication, so thank you again for this opportunity. I would like to add finally that I think that for me, writing makes the world more enjoyable, but I am sure that reading makes it better. »
Stories above all
The winning book this year Live or almost published by Éditions L’Interligne is made up of a set of seven independent stories which come together around a common theme: the difficulty of existing.
“These are above all stories, it’s not necessarily what I think,” said the author at the ONFR microphone. I want to convey ideas in my stories, but the priority remains that they are well constructed so that something happens. Something has to happen at the end […] As a reader I like it when stories end badly, because it allows you to imagine what happens next, what happens? What’s going to happen?
Whereas when it ends well, we close the book and then forget about it. I think the best stories are these, because life is difficult, it doesn’t always end well, it’s closer to what we experience in everyday life. »
The other finalists greeted by the winner were Paul Ruban with The scent of the whale, David Menard with Dawn tortures the childMartin Bélanger with The end of our programs and Andrée Christensen with Plonge, Freya, vole!.
No French-speaking poetry
For the return of poetry this year, which alternates every other year with children’s literature, unfortunately, only English-speaking works were rewarded, due to an insufficient number of proposals sent by French-speaking publishing houses.
So it is More Sure by A. Light Zachary published by Arsenal Pulp Press who won the poetry prize, while in the main English category, Nina Dunic at Invisible Publishing was rewarded for her work The Clarion.
