Saskatchewan writer Cassi Smith has won this year’s RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award, which grants $10,000 and a mentorship opportunity to a Canadian writer working on a forthcoming title. Smith is in the process of completing a non-fiction collection based on interviews with local First Nations elders, along with her master of fine arts in writing. Smith was selected by Ross King, this year’s RBC Taylor Prize winner, who will serve as mentor.

“I’ve been impressed with the empathy of [Smith’s] writing and her commitment to human values, which she explores without judgment or sentimentality,” King said in a release. “Hers is a voice that deserves to be heard, along with those of the people she writes about.”