The 2026 Writers' Trust Awards were held last night at CBC's Glenn Gould Studio. More than $400,000 was awarded to Canadian writers across their eight literary awards. Métis author Cherie Dimaline was awarded the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People. The $40,000 prize, supported by the Metcalf Foundation, is awarded annually to an author of an exceptional body of work in children's literature. Cherie's YA novels include The Marrow Thieves, Hunting by Stars, Into the Bright Open and Funeral Songs for Dying Girls.
Of Cherie's writing, the jury had this to say:
“Cherie Dimaline’s writing for young people wears its heart on its sleeve and that heart is passionate, angry, risk-taking, raw, and vulnerable. In genre-bending fiction, she infuses contemporary urban realism, literary folktale, dystopia, magic, and the classic survival story with a highly original Indigenous voice. Race and the history of colonialism are baked into every plot turn, every character, every metaphor. In nuanced sentences that are rich with surprises in language and insight, the reader is invited into a world where the universal concerns of adolescence, identity and love, play out in tandem with deeply limned narratives of the natural world, its cycles, dramas, and fragility. Cherie Dimaline is a consummate, courageous wordsmith and storyteller at the top of her game.” —Sarah Ellis, Marthe Jocelyn, Lindsay Wong
For the complete list of winners, visit writerstrust.com.