Trillium Book Award

The Trillium Book Award is an annual literary award presented to writers in Ontario, Canada. It is administered by Ontario Creates, a Crown agency of the Government of Ontario, which is overseen by the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries. The monetary component for the award includes amounts paid to the author of the book and to the publisher of the book. The award has been expanded several times since its establishment in 1987: a separate award for French-language literature was added in 1994, an award for poetry in each language was added in 2003, and an award for French-language children's literature was added in 2006.

History

The Trillium Book Award was created for three reasons:

to recognize a book of literary excellence which furthers the understanding of Ontarians and Ontario society;
to assist Ontario’s publishing industry; and,
to bring Ontario’s public library and writing communities closer together.

The Trillium Award was one of several creative initiatives undertaken by the Libraries and Community Information Branch while under the direction of Wilfried Vanderelst during the 1980s, that encouraged the development of Ontario writers and the distribution of their works. When created in 1987 the Trillium Book Award/Prix Trillium was the richest book award in Canada with a cash prize of $10,000 to the winner. It was also unique in that a separate $2000 would go to the publisher of the winning book to assist in its marketing and promotion. Under the auspices of the Libraries Branch, both the shortlisted books and the finalist were marketed through a unique logo for the prize, posters, bookmarks as well as an aggressive six-week media campaign targeting both bookstores as well as public libraries.
The first jury was bilingual and selected seven nominees for the book award. Books in both languages were considered, as were poetry, fiction, and non-fiction books. The members of the first jury were Joyce Marshall, novelist and translator; Pierre Levesque, an Ottawa bookseller and specialist in French Canadian books; Grace Buller, retired librarian and former editor of Ontario Library Review ; William Eccles, historian and Professor Emeritus; and Wayne Grady, anthologist, critic, translator, and former editor of Harrowsmith.
The Trillium Book Award met with considerable approval from newspaper book editors at the time of the first award in 1988. While some critics did not like a judged competition involving personal taste in reading the material, the benefits of the award in assisting the marketing of Canadian books was thought more important. The Writers’ Union led at that time by the writer Matt Cohen met with Wil Vanderelst and strongly supported both programs given cutbacks in support for arts organizations at the federal level. Through reprioritizing, the public libraries budget these programs continued – although the writers in libraries program was eventually eliminated as part of the province’s budgetary restrictions. The Trillium Book Award managed to avoid the budgetary ax only through the personal support of the then Premier, Bob Rae. He is the only Premier of Ontario who has attended the presentation program of the award.

Awards and eligibility

The Trillium Award is open to books in any genre: fiction, non-fiction, drama, children's books, and poetry. Anthologies, new editions, re-issues and translations are not eligible. Electronic and self-published books are also ineligible. Three jury members per language judge the submissions, select the shortlist and the winning title. The jury is composed of writers and other members of the literary community.
Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who have lived in Ontario for at least three out of the past five years and who have been published anywhere in the world are eligible. Their publishers are invited to submit titles to the Ministry of Culture for consideration. In 1993 the award was expanded by Premier Bob Rae's government to also include a French-language category; it was first awarded in 1994.
In 2003, new English and French poetry categories were added to the awards. The following year, however, due to the smaller number of French-language titles published in Ontario there were not enough French poetry submissions to present an award; accordingly, the French section is now divided into poetry and children's literature awards presented in alternating years, with each award having an eligibility period of two years rather than one. The English poetry award continues to be presented yearly, and an English children's literature award is not presented; however, English children's books are eligible to be nominated for the English fiction award.

Winners and nominees

From 1987 to 1993, when only a single award was presented irrespective of language or literary genre, winners and nominees are directly listed below. From 1994 on, please see Trillium Book Award, English and Trillium Book Award, French.

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref
1987	'	In the Skin of a Lion	Winner
1987		Language, Schooling and Cultural Conflicts	Nominee
1987		False Face	Nominee
1987		Behind Closed Doors	Nominee
1987	and Allan Gould	First Stage: The Making of the Stratford Festival	Nominee
1987		L'Obomsawin	Nominee
1987		King Leary	Nominee
1988	'	Stones	Winner
1988		Cat's Eye	Nominee
1988			Nominee
1988		Living on Water	Nominee
1988		In the Sleep Room	Nominee
1988			Nominee
1988		Atmospheres Apollinaire	Nominee
1988			Nominee
1988		Newfoundland in the North Atlantic World, 1929-1949	Nominee
1988		Spoils of Power: The Politics of Patronage	Nominee
1989	'	Rites of Spring	Winner
1989		Northrop Frye	Nominee
1989			Nominee
1989			Nominee
1989	and Roy MacGregor	Home Game: Hockey and Life in Canada	Nominee
1989			Nominee
1989		Unauthorized Action	Nominee
1989		Franz Liszt, Volume 2: The Weimar Years, 1848-1861	Nominee
1989		Two Worlds	Nominee
1989		Time Among the Maya	Nominee
1990	'	Friend of My Youth	Winner
1990		At Face Value: The Life and Times of Eliza McCormack/John White	Nominee
1990			Nominee
1990		No Language Is Neutral	Nominee
1990		Luminous Emergencies	Nominee
1990		Words with Power: Being a Second Study of the Bible and Literature	Nominee
1990	and Robert Bothwell	Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy	Nominee
1990		Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)	Nominee
1990			Nominee
1990			Nominee
1991	'	Wilderness Tips	Winner
1991			Nominee
1991		Miss You Like Crazy	Nominee
1991		Murther and Walking Spirits	Nominee
1991		Isobars	Nominee
1991		Something Happened Here	Nominee
1991			Nominee
1991		News from a Foreign Country Came	Nominee
1991		Miner's Pond	Nominee
1991		Such a Long Journey	Nominee
1991		Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition	Nominee
1992	'	'	Winner
1992		Voice-Over	Nominee
1992			Nominee
1992		Wintering Over	Nominee
1992		We So Seldom Look on Love	Nominee
1992		Tapestry of War: A Private View of Canadians in the Great War	Nominee
1992		Flight Paths of the Emperor	Nominee
1992			Nominee
1992		Stolen Continents	Nominee
1993	'	'	Winner
1993	'	Away	Winner
1993		Pavane pour la naissance d'une infante defunte	Nominee
1993		Adele Hugo: La Miserable	Nominee
1993			Nominee
1993			Nominee
1993			Nominee
1993		Sur le piste des Jolicoeur	Nominee
1993			Nominee
1993			Nominee