Winnipeg novelist Miriam Toews has been named this year’s $10,000 Harbourfront Festival Prize winner.

Toews was selected by Toronto Star books editor Deborah Dundas, CBC Radio host Carol Off, and IFOA director Geoffrey E. Taylor. The jury praised Toews’s advocacy for the mentally ill and her support of the local writing community, calling her “an ambassador for Canadian writing and culture.”

The award will be presented at IFOA at the Fleck Dance Theatre on Oct. 24 at 8 p.m.