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Otoniya J. Okot Bitek and Hajer Mirwali are the English-language winners for the 2026 Trillium Book Awards.
Established in 1987, the prize annually recognizes the best book and best poetry collection from writers in Ontario.
The winners in both the English and French categories of the Trillium Book Award will receive $20,000, while the winner of the poetry category will receive $10,000.
Bitek won the Trillium Book Award for her novel We, The Kindling, which weaves together stories of women who were abducted as children by a rebel militia in northern Uganda.
Through the writing, each powerful voice tells a haunting story of loss, survival, friendship and what it means to hold on to hope, no matter how small.
Bitek, a poet and scholar born in Kenya to Ugandan parents, currently lives in Kingston, Ont. Her work includes poetry collections 100 Days, A is for Acholi, which won the 2023 Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize, and Song & Dread. She was also longlisted for the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize.
Mirwali won the poetry award for Revolutions, a collection that examines Muslim daughterhood — and how themes of shame and pleasure are inextricably linked throughout. Drawing from poetics both Palestinian and Iraqi, feminist and Canadian, Revolutions looks at how young Arab women shift their identities.
Mirwali is a Toronto-based Palestinian and Iraqi writer. Her work has appeared in publications such as The Ex-Puritan, Brick Magazine, Room Magazine and Joyland. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph.
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The winner of the Prix Trillium, the French-language book prize, is Sarah Migneron for her book Maman bleue.
Lisa L’Heureux won the French-language poetry prize for her book Haus.
Last year’s winners were Maurice Vellekoop and Jake Byrne.
Previous Trillium Award winners include Margaret Atwood and Dionne Brand.
