Canisia Lubrin Wins 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
Chicago, IL — Canisia Lubrin has been named the winner of the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her book Code Noir, published by Knopf Canada/Soft Skull Press. The award, which provides $150,000USD to the winner, is the largest English-language literary prize in the world for women and non-binary authors.
The announcement was made at a live event at the Chicago History Museum hosted by the award-winning biographer and historian Charlotte Gray. Members of dynamic literary communities from the U.S. and Canada gathered to celebrate Lubrin’s significant win, as well as the work of Finalists: Dominique Fortier & Rhonda Mullins (translator), Miranda July, Sarah Manguso, and Aube Rey Lescure.
Of the winning title, the Jury, made up of Diana Abu-Jaber (Jury Chair), Norma Dunning, Kim Fu, Tessa McWatt, and Jeanne Thornton shared the following:
“Code Noir contains multitudes. Its characters inhabit multi-layered landscapes of the past, present and future, confronting suffering, communion and metamorphosis. Canisia Lubrin’s prose is polyphonic; the stories invite you to immerse yourself in both the real and the speculative, in the intimate and in sweeping moments of history. Riffing on the Napoleonic decree, Lubrin retunes the legacies of slavery, colonialism and violence. This is a virtuoso collection that breaks new ground in short fiction.”
Lubrin will receive $150,000 USD and a five-night stay at Fogo Island Inn; the four finalists will each receive $12,500 USD. The Prize Award is generously supported by BMO.
The four finalists and the winner are invited to participate in a group retreat residency in the Leighton Artist Studios, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction was created to recognize novels, short story collections, and graphic novels written by women and non-binary authors and published in the U.S. and Canada.
Canisia Lubrin giving her acceptance speech. Credit: Sean Kennedy
We thank Women and Children First Bookstore for their fantastic work welcoming us for the reading event celebrating the shortlist, hosted by author Myriam J. A. Chancy, and for being the official bookseller at the Award Ceremony. You can get all our longlisted, shortlisted, and winner titles from them, including some signed copies.
We are also thankful to all our supporters and donors that make our work possible, and our main event sponsor that made the Chicago celebration a reality, TAWANI Foundation.
