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Gowdy's Helpless wins Trillium Book Award

13.06.2008 15:00 Arts - Source: cbc.ca

Barbara Gowdy is one of the newest winners of Ontario's Trillium Book Awards, announced at a midday ceremony in Toronto Thursday.

The Toronto-based Gowdy won the $20,000 English-language Trillium Book Award for her seventh novel, Helpless, which tells the provocative story of a single mother whose preteen daughter is kidnapped by a middle-aged man.

Poet Rachel Zolf, also of Toronto, won the $10,000 English-language poetry award for her collection Human Resources.

Pierre Raphal Pelletier won the $20,000 French-language Trillium Book Award for L'Oeil de la lumire, while Tina Charlebois received the prize in the $10,000 French-language poetry category for her collection Poils lisses. Both live in the Ottawa area.

Publishers of the winning tomes also each receive an amount ($2,500 for book winners and $2,000 for poetry winners) to aid in promotional costs. All non-winning finalists receive a $500 honorarium.

"The finalists and award-winners have all played an important role in fostering a culture of creativity in our province," Ontario Culture Minister Aileen Carroll said in a statement.

"I congratulate each of them on receiving this distinguished prize."

Established in 1987 to honour literary excellence by Ontario writers, the Trillium Book Award was united in 1994 with its francophone equivalent, the Prix Trillium. This year is the award's 21st edition.

Past winners of the Ontario literary prize include Margaret Atwood, Wayson Choy, Thomas King and Michael Ondaatje.

With files from the Canadian Press

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FEATURE: Lost and found: Barbara Gowdy talks about Helpless, her new novel about a child abduction

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