{"id":3967,"date":"2015-11-04T20:20:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-04T20:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/?p=3967"},"modified":"2015-11-04T20:40:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-04T20:40:27","slug":"andre-alexis-takes-home-the-2015-rogers-writers-trust-fiction-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/andre-alexis-takes-home-the-2015-rogers-writers-trust-fiction-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Andr\u00e9 Alexis Takes Home the 2015 Rogers Writers&#8217; Trust Fiction Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last night, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.writerstrust.com\/\">Writers\u2019 Trust of Canada<\/a> gave out a total of $139,000 to the award winners and finalists at this year&#8217;s Writers\u2019 Trust Award ceremony, held at CBC\u2019s Glenn Gould Studio.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-3971 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Andre-Alexis-Winning-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Andre Alexis Winning\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Andre-Alexis-Winning-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Andre-Alexis-Winning.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Andre-Alexis-Winning-180x135.jpg 180w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Andre-Alexis-Winning-333x250.jpg 333w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Andre-Alexis-Winning-350x263.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Andr\u00e9<em>\u00a0<\/em>Alexis<\/strong> was awarded the $25,000 Rogers Writers\u2019 Trust Fiction Prize for his philosophical novel <em>Fifteen Dogs <\/em>(Coach House Books). Alexis, a finalist for the Toronto Book Awards and the Scotiabank Giller Prize (which will be awarded next week on Tuesday November 10), read at The Word On The Street this year on September 27.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>In\u00a0<em>Fifteen Dogs<\/em>, the gods Hermes and Apollo wager on whether \u201chuman intelligence\u201d is a gift that makes creatures happy or \u201can occasionally useful plague\u201d. To decide this, they grant human intelligence to 15 dogs who happen to be in a kennel at King and Shaw. The reader watches along with the gods as the dogs struggle with their new perspective on life and on themselves.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Others shortlisted for this year\u2019s fiction prize included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Elizabeth Hay for <em>His Whole Life <\/em>(McClelland &amp; Stewart)<\/li>\n<li>Pamela Mordecai for <em>Red Jacket <\/em>(TAP Books)<\/li>\n<li>Russell Smith for <em>Confidence <\/em>(Biblioasis)<\/li>\n<li>John Vaillant for <em>The Jaguar\u2019s Children <\/em>(Knopf Canada)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Annabel Lyon<\/strong> won the $25,000 Writers\u2019 Trust Engel\/Findley Award, given to a mid-career writer for their body of work and the anticipation of their future contribution to Canadian literature. In her speech, she spoke about how writing is anything but a lonely profession, considering the amount of editors, publishers, and readers that surround her, and remarked that \u201cI am not alone in what I do.\u201d Past winners of the Engel\/Findley Award include Lisa Moore, Nino Ricci, Miriam Toews, and Michael Winter.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3972 size-medium alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Karen-Solie-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Karen Solie at the Writers Trust Ceremony \" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Karen-Solie-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Karen-Solie-180x135.jpg 180w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Karen-Solie-333x250.jpg 333w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Karen-Solie-350x263.jpg 350w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Karen-Solie.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The second annual $25,000 Latner Writers\u2019 Trust Poetry Prize was awarded to <strong>Karen Solie<\/strong> for her body of work. The first Latner Poetry Prize was awarded last year to Ken Babstock. Solie\u2019s newest collection, <em>The Road In Is Not The Same Road Out, <\/em>was published by House of Anansi.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Richard Wagamese<\/strong> received the $20,000 Matt Cohen Award. Each year, an independent jury selects the winner from any permanent Canadian resident who has dedicated their life to writing. Wagamese has worked as both a journalist and author for over 35 years. His work includes <em>The Indian Horse, Medicine Walk, <\/em>and <em>Runaway Dreams. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The $20,000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, awarded to a Canadian writer for their body of work in children\u2019s literature, was given to <strong>Jan Thornhill. <\/strong>Thornhill writes enthusiastically about science and remarked last night that both literature and science are about the free dissemination of ideas.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3973 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Deirdre-Dorn-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Deirdre Dorn at the Writers' Trust Ceremony \" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Deirdre-Dorn-300x225.jpg 300w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Deirdre-Dorn.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Deirdre-Dorn-180x135.jpg 180w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Deirdre-Dorn-333x250.jpg 333w, http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/11\/Deirdre-Dorn-350x263.jpg 350w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Deirdre Dore<\/strong>\u00a0won the $10,000 Writers\u2019 Trust\/McClelland &amp; Stewart Journey Prize with her story \u201cThe Wise Baby,\u201d published by Geist magazine. Dore said she was truly humbled by the experience of sharing the stage with such literary giants.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last night, the Writers\u2019 Trust of Canada gave out a total of $139,000 to the award winners and finalists at this year&#8217;s Writers\u2019 Trust Award ceremony, held at CBC\u2019s Glenn Gould Studio. &nbsp; Andr\u00e9\u00a0Alexis was awarded the $25,000 Rogers Writers\u2019 Trust Fiction Prize for his philosophical novel Fifteen Dogs (Coach House Books). Alexis, a finalist <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/andre-alexis-takes-home-the-2015-rogers-writers-trust-fiction-prize\/\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3979,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3967"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3994,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3967\/revisions\/3994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewordonthestreet.ca\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}