2024 Fiscal Year Wrap-up
What a year!
June 30 marked the end of another successful fiscal year at the Carol Shields Prize Foundation. We are proud of the work we have done in our second full year of Prize activity, including the announcement of the 2024 longlist, shortlist, and winner, and the expansion of our fellowship, scholarship and residency programs. With gratitude, we acknowledge that these achievements would not have been possible without you—the supporters and donors who care so deeply about our mission.
Here are some highlights of the past year:
The five talented writers who made up the Jury for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction were Jen Sookfong Lee, Chair; Laila Lalami; Claire Messud; Dolen Perkins-Valdez; and Eden Robinson. They read and assessed 230+ books from across the U.S. and Canada. Thanks for your stellar work!
The longlist for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction was announced on March 8 (International Women's Day), the shortlist on April 9. Please put these books on your “TBR” list!
Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan won the 2024 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, celebrated at an award event in Toronto, Ontario on May 13, 2024.
The Prize Award was generously presented by corporate sponsor BMO: V.V. Ganeshananthan received USD$150,000, and the four finalists received USD$12,500. We are proud to make a real difference in the lives of these writers!
The May 13 event was attended by three of our scholarship recipients: Chantal Rondeau, the Tin House Scholarship Recipient; and Janielle Browne and Salima Tourkmani-MacDonald, who received the Jim Polk/Carol Shields Prize Scholarship at the University of Toronto over the past two years. This was an important opportunity for networking for all of the writers in attendance, fulfilling our mandate to support women and non-binary writers.
We hosted a reading/workshop at the University of Toronto on May 12, 2024 led by Prof. Ian Williams and the Jim Polk/Carol Shields Prize Foundation Scholarship in Creative Writing recipients, Janielle Browne and Salima Tourkmani-MacDonald. The audience was given writing prompts by all five of our shortlisted writers; some of our audience members were brave enough to share their creative writing with the group!
Gratitude goes to Event Co-Chairs Linda Haynes and Devin Connell for their fantastic work putting together our sparkling Toronto event at the Globe and Mail Centre. Linda and Devin, your time, hard work, and generosity are so much appreciated!
Thanks go to all of our past and current Authors Committee members, who are tasked with nominating writers for the jury. The Authors Committee was co-chaired last year by Merilyn Simonds and Jamie Figueroa. The group selected the Prize jury who are currently reading books published in 2024.
Programs to support underrepresented and emerging writers in the U.S. and Canada continued to grow during this year. Many thanks to our partners at the following organizations:
Diaspora Dialogues
Institute for American Indian Arts
University of Toronto
Tin House Summer Writing Workshop
Fogo Island Inn
Historic Joy Kogawa House
Hedgebrook
Sana’a Jaber was the inaugural recipient of The Carol Shields Prize Foundation Fellowship at Diaspora Dialogues, which provides financial support to a woman or non-binary BIPOC writer who is a refugee or new immigrant to Canada. We are deeply grateful to the M.A. Faris Foundation for supporting this Fellowship. Here is a link to an interview with Sana’a.
Sarah Camille Chiago was inaugural recipient of The Carol Shields Prize Foundation Scholarship at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which supports a woman or non-binary BIPOC writer from the U.S. or Canada enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. Here is a link to an interview with Sarah.
The Carol Shields Prize Foundation Scholarship for Indigenous Women and Non-Binary Writers supports a writer’s attendance at the Tin House Summer Workshop in Portland, Oregon, with tuition, room and board, and a travel stipend. The inaugural recipient was Chantal Rondeau; the 2024 recipient will be Tashina Emery.
The Jim Polk/Carol Shields Prize Foundation Scholarship in Creative Writing supports a woman or non-binary writer in the Master of Arts in Creative Writing program at the University of Toronto. The current recipient is Janielle Browne; Salima Tourkmani-MacDonald was the 2023 recipient. We are deeply grateful to Jim Polk for supporting this Scholarship.
Saskatchewan Métis and Cree writer Lisa Bird-Wilson was the inaugural recipient of The Carol Shields Prize Foundation Residency at Historic Joy Kogawa House, which provides a woman or non-binary writer from the United States or Canada with a month-long residency at the House in order to further a literary project.
This was the first year of support for The Carol Shields Prize Foundation Residency at Hedgebrook. The Hedgebrook team selected one woman-identified writer from the United States or Canada to receive a twelve-day stay at their retreat on Whidbey Island, Washington.
Finally, we have a wonderful partnership with Newfoundland’s award-winning Fogo Island Inn, offering an annual residency to the Prize winner or a finalist. While at the Inn in September 2023, Fatimah Asghar hosted a literary chat with local residents at the Fogo Island Public Library. 2024 Winner V.V. Ganeshananthan visited Fogo Island Inn in July/August 2024.
Other events in the past year included:
A book talk in collaboration with Toronto’s Another Story Bookshop, featuring Fatimah Asghar and award-winning poet Sanna Wani, who led attendees on a wonderful evening of literary discussion and readings.
A fabulous keynote address at the International Visitors Programme at the Toronto International Festival of Authors (TIFA), featuring Prize co-founder Susan Swan.
Also at TIFA, Alexis Schaitkin discussed her novel Elsewhere, shortlisted for the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, in a conversation with Prize co-founder Janice Zawerbny.
In February, we partnered with Diaspora Dialogues to present an Online Literary Salon introducing the inaugural winner of the Carol Shields Prize Foundation Fellowship at Diaspora Dialogues, Sana'a Jaber.
This year the Prize extended outreach efforts to independent booksellers in the U.S. and Canada to promote books by women and non-binary writers in-store. Our finalists did a small tour of indie bookstores in Toronto when they were visiting the city in May!
In Canada, the team partnered with Indigo Books for in-store and online promotion of the shortlisted books right across Canada.
The Carol Shields Prize Foundation welcomed four new Board Directors this past year: Shauna Singh Baldwin , Patrick Manley, Ian Williams, and Emma Eisendrath.
In 2023-2024 the Foundation team included Alexandra Skoczylas, CEO, Emily Kellogg, Program and Operations Manager, and Natália Affonso, Marketing Coordinator. We also collaborated with Zg Stories, based in Vancouver, and Carisa Hays PR, based in NY. We were delighted with the increase in web traffic and social media engagement that came, in part, from our focus on increasing awareness of the Prize in the United States. (We got some great coverage on NPR and on People.com!)
We are now turning our minds to the Prize event in May 2025, planned for Chicago!
Special thanks to our lead sponsors BMO Financial Group, TAWANI Foundation, and Pivotal Ventures, as well as our generous honorary patrons, and everyone who donated over the past year!
“This has been the most joyful and nurturing book prize experience of my career….... So many times in the past, these kinds of events have been exclusionary, terrifying moments. I was often the only racialized woman in a room, ignored, and anxious. The care the Carol Shields staff, volunteers, and board took to make everyone feel welcome was extraordinary. The evening was full of recognition of emerging authors, trailblazing authors, and of course the five nominees. And the winner, V. V. Ganeshananthan for Brotherless Night! We spoke freely, about inequities, realities, writing, and war. And there was safety and space to do so. It’s not a small thing these days to attend a literary event and have all our thoughts be respected. So, thank you, Carol Shields Prize, for inviting me to be a part of the ride.” 2024 Jury Chair Jen Sookfong Lee
