Clockwise from top left: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Zahra Siddiqui), Maria Reva (Anya Chibis), Roza Nozari (Sarah Bodri), Kim Thuy, Julie Flett, Sheree Fitch, Bren Simmers.

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Maria Reva, and Roza Nozari are among the winners of the 2025 Writers’ Trust Awards.

The winners of the organization’s annual book prizes, as well as the winners of four awards that honour writers for their body of work, were announced at an event in Toronto on Nov. 13, hosted by CBC Radio host Matthea Roach.

Betasamosake Simpson was named the winner of the Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize for Nonfiction for Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Alchemy by Knopf Canada/PRHC). She was one of five writers shortlisted for the $75,000 prize. Finalists Omar El Akkad, Tessa McWatt, Vinh Nguyen, and Miriam Toews each receive $5,000.

In their citation, the jury comprised of writers Matthew R. Morris, Lorri Neilsen Glenn, and Niigaan Sinclair called the book a “radical exploration of water.” “Simpson’s brilliant and sintering weave of story, research, and Nishnaabeg teachings offers a generous and transformative perspective on world-building,” the jury wrote. “Theory of Water shows us how to reimagine life as we know it, embodying hope.”

Maria Reva won the $70,000 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize for her novel Endling (Knopf Canada/PRHC). Reva was one of five writers shortlisted for this year’s prize. Finalists Tim Bowling, Robert McGill, Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, and Aurora Stewart de Peña each receive $7,500.

The jury called Endling, which was also longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize, an “astonishment.” “Endling’s brilliance lies in Reva’s willingness to yank on the dangling thread of the unanswerable, unraveling the whole genre, only to masterfully stitch it back together again,” the jury comprised of Gary Barwin, Ali Bryan, and Jasmine Sealy wrote in their citation.

Roza Nozari was named the winner of this year’s $12,000 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers for All the Parts We Exile (Knopf Canada/PRHC), a memoir that the jury wrote “captivates with its raw portrait of the yearning to be oneself.” A jury comprised of Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, Darrin Hagen, and Janika Oza made the selections for this year’s prize, which was presented by its founder, Robin Pacific.

Bren Simmers was awarded the Latner Griffin Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize. The $60,000 is awarded to a mid-career poet both in recognition of their body of work and in anticipation of future contributions to Canadian literature. A jury comprised of Jenna Butler, rob mclennan, and Chimwemwe Undi wrote in their citation that Simmers’s “deeply felt poems link rural and urban life, uplifting the everyday with crisp and thoughtful lines.”

Sheree Fitch was named the winner of the $40,000 Matt Cohen Award which celebrates an author whose life has been dedicated to writing. “Her books, both for children and adults, are exuberant, joyful, and wise, which aptly describes the author herself,” the award’s selection committee (comprised of Patsy Aldana, Michelle Good, Wayne Grady, and Hal Flake) wrote in their citation.

Author and illustrator Julie Flett won the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, which sees its purse rise to $40,000 this year, from $25,000 in previous years, thanks to an increase in support from the Metcalf Foundation, which sponsors the award. Jurors Peter Ho, Susan Perren, and Rebecca Thomas wrote that Flett “has created a body of work that hums with warmth, beauty, and meaning.”

Kim Thúy won the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award, which is awarded to a mid-career writer of predominantly fiction. In their citation, the jury comprised of Daniel Grenier, Chelene Knight, and Jeanette Lynes wrote that “Thúy’s writing challenges the boundaries of genre while her focus on the human plight remains front and centre.”