Toronto poet and children's writer Dennis Lee, shown in this handout image, is among the well-versed wordsmiths receiving career honours from the Writers' Trust of Canada. Lee was named this year's winner of the $25,000 Matt Cohen Award on Wednesday for a lifetime of distinguished work by a Canadian writer. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Susan Perly
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December 02, 2020 - 8:42 AM
Toronto poet and children's writer Dennis Lee is among the winners of this year's Writers' Trust career honours.
The Writers' Trust of Canada doled out $25,000 apiece to four well-versed wordsmiths on Wednesday for their continued contributions to Canadian literature.
Lee was named the winner of the Matt Cohen Award for a lifetime of distinguished work by a Canadian writer.
His achievements include co-founding the independent publishing company House of Anansi Press in 1967, and penning the 1974 children's classic "Alligator Pie."
Also recognized on Wednesday was Kerri Sakamoto, the Toronto-based author of three novels exploring the experience of Japanese-Canadians, who won the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award honouring a mid-career writer for their contributions to fiction.
Queen's University professor Armand Garnet Ruffo, who draws from his Ojibwe heritage in his genre-spanning works, won the Latner Writers' Trust Poetry Prize recognizing a mid-career poet for mastery of the form.
The $25,000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People went to Montreal-based Marianne Dubuc, a French-language author and illustrator whose picture books have been published in more than 25 languages.
Organizers say the Writers' Trust Awards has given out a total of more than $300,000 to Canadian writers this year between its prizes for individual works, career achievements and emerging talent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 2, 2020.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2020