Nine writers have been named finalists for the 2025 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers.

The award, established in 1994, grants $10,000 annually to a writer of fiction and poetry. This year, the prize will also be awarded to a writer of creative nonfiction for the first time since the category was added last year.

Three writers have been shortlisted in each category, with the winners to be named at a ceremony in Toronto on June 2. Category finalists will each receive $2,500.

The poetry finalists were chosen from 143 submissions by a jury comprised of Dallas Hunt, Matt Rader, and Sanna Wani. The finalists are:

• Cicely Grace for “Rather Her Clean”
• Nicole Mae for “Prairie Bog”
• Dora Prieto for “Loose Threads”

The short fiction finalists were selected from 172 submissions by a jury comprised of Jean Marc Ah-Sen, Baharan Baniahmadi, and Shashi Bhat. The finalists are:

• Jess Goldman for “Tombstone of a Tsaddik”
• Alexis Lachaîne for “Three New France Suicides”
• Hana Mason for “Training the Replacement”

The creative nonfiction finalists were chosen by a jury comprised of Omar Mouallem, Alessandra Naccarato, and Lindsay Wong. They read 108 submissions to select the finalists:

• Huyền Trân for “Where Do Mothers Go”
• Phillip Dwight Morgan for “White Trucks and Mergansers”
• Graham Slaughter for “Breach”

The award is administered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada and supported by RBC, which has sponsored the prize since 2007.