Patrick James Errington and Teya Hollier have been named the winners of the 2022 RBC Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers.

Errington was named the winner in the $10,000 poetry category for “If Fire, Then Bird.”

“These poems move with undeniable grace and attention, subtly adopting and subverting lyrical and pastoral tropes to pose tough questions about the fragile boundaries between health and illness, presence and absence, place and displacement,” the jury said in their citation.

Errington is a poet, translator, literary critic, and academic from Alberta. He lives in Scotland where he teaches at the University of Edinburgh. Errington was one of three finalists for the prize, and was selected from 183 entries by a jury comprised of poets Tenille K. Campbell, Michael Prior, and Suzannah Showler.

Teya Hollier was named the winner in the $10,000 short fiction category for “Watching, Waiting.”

The jury called the story “a tender, skillful, and moving storytelling achievement [that] perfectly captures a child’s voice and understanding of the adult world.”

Hollier lives in Toronto and explores racial oppression, mental illness, and generational trauma in her writing. She was also one of three finalists for the award. A jury comprised of authors Erin Frances Fisher, Angélique Lalonde, and Derek Mascarenhas considered 189 entries in the short fiction category.

The winners were announced on June 2 at an in-person event in Toronto hosted by past award finalist and juror Irfan Ali. Finalists from 2020 and 2021 were also in attendance.

The award is sponsored by RBC Emerging Artists and administered by The Writers’ Trust of Canada.