“Funny, wild, and completely lacking in pretension, Theory takes huge formal risks, reimagining the novel of ideas for our own moment, challenging and enchanting the reader at the same time,” the judges said. “It is impossible to express what this extraordinary encouragement means, what being in such company during such a catastrophic time, will make possible,” Lubrin said in a statement.Īlumna and honorary degree recipient Brand is a novelist, essayist and Toronto’s former poet laureate, whose most recent book is called Theory. Describing her work, the judges said: “Bursting beyond the confines of legibility and the individual, Canisia Lubrin summons up oceans, languages, and the self, the other, and the first-person plural, into a generous baroque project of anti-colonial plenitude.” The author of the critically acclaimed Voodoo Hypothesis and The Dyzgraphxst, Lubrin is an instructor at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies and was also recently named poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart, succeeding Brand in the role.

While both Brand and Lubrin write in many forms, Brand was recognized for fiction and Lubrin for poetry.

Renowned authors Canisia Lubrin and Dionne Brand have each received one of the world’s most sought-after literary awards: The Windham-Campbell prize.Īwarded by Yale University to eight writers annually, the prize gives US$165,000 (more than C$206,000) to each author in recognition of their extraordinary literary achievements.

Dionne brand theory