McClelland & Stewart editorial director of fiction Anita Chong has been named the recipient of the 2026 Professional Association of Canadian Literary Agents (PACLA) Person of the Year award.

The award, now in its fourth year, recognizes “exemplary individuals in editing, publicity and marketing, or sales, who have gone above and beyond in the support of our author clients.”

Chong counts among her recent lauded works Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood, which was shortlisted for both the Giller Prize and the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Giller Prize-winning collection How to Pronounce Knife, and Tsering Yangzom Lama’s Giller shortlisted We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies.

The PACLA Person of the Year award was first granted in 2023 to author and festival director Jael Richardson.

Correction, Oct. 15: This story has been updated to note Chong’s role at McClelland & Stewart. She is editorial director of fiction, not executive editor.