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$410,000 later Brand and Lubrin are still gobsmacked (and then some) AfroToronto.com  What do you say when you find out you have just on $205,000? For two Caribbean Canadian authors, Canisia Lubrin and Dionne Brand, when they learned via Zoom that each of them had just won one of eight Windham-Campbell Prizes, it was short and sweet.  “Wow” said Brand, and “this is thoroughly shocking,” echoed Lubrin. By Stephen Weir: On Monday, Yale University on March 22 announced the eight recipients of the 2021 Windham-Campbell Prizes. The writers, whose work explores matters both personal and political, were honoured for their literary achievement or promise. Each will receive $165,000 US ($205,000 Cdn) to support their work. Canadian Trinidad & Tobago Dionne Brand won for her fiction writing. Canadian St Lucia’s Canisia Lubrin was honoured for her poetry. Dionne Brand left “Through original and intensely moving work that challenges what we think we know about genre and style, t...

Poet Caniza Lubrin - another Caribbean Canadian enters the literary winner's circle Score another major literary win for a Caribbean Canadian author. Earlier this week Whitby poet Canisia Lubrin was one of five young Canadian writers to win the Writers’ Trust Rising Star award. The St Lucian born writer was chosen by Vancouver playwright Anosh Irani because he considers her to be one of Canada’s top new writers. Already a gifted poet, Irani says “it will be extremely rewarding for us as she turns her devastating gifts to prose. She will push us and break us in ways that will continue to let the light in.”. The Rising Stars award is a national development program that recognizes talented authors in the early stages of their careers with $5,000 and highlights their work with an endorsement from a proven, influential author. In addition to receiving one-on-one guidance, the five Rising Stars will attend a series of professional and networking events and attend a two-week self-di...