# Trillium Book Award

The Trillium Book Award (French: Prix littéraire Trillium or Prix Trillium) 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 Wil 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 prize today is $20,000 for the writer with $2,500 for the publisher, and $10,000/$2000 for the poetry prize.)
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 (of Books); 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 |
| 1987 | Michael Ondaatje | In the Skin of a Lion | Winner |
| 1987 | Chad Gaffield | Language, Schooling and Cultural Conflicts | Nominee |
| 1987 | Welwyn Wilton Katz | False Face | Nominee |
| 1987 | Linda McQuaig | Behind Closed Doors | Nominee |
| 1987 | Tom Patterson and Allan Gould | First Stage: The Making of the Stratford Festival | Nominee |
| 1987 | Daniel Poliquin | L'Obomsawin | Nominee |
| 1987 | Paul Quarrington | King Leary | Nominee |
| 1988 | Timothy Findley | Stones | Winner |
| 1988 | Margaret Atwood | Cat's Eye | Nominee |
| 1988 | Neil Bissoondath | A Casual Brutality | Nominee |
| 1988 | Matt Cohen | Living on Water | Nominee |
| 1988 | Anne Collins | In the Sleep Room | Nominee |
| 1988 | Robertson Davies | The Lyre of Orpheus | Nominee |
| 1988 | Mark Frutkin | Atmospheres Apollinaire | Nominee |
| 1988 | Maurice Henrie | La Chambre à mourir | Nominee |
| 1988 | Peter F. Neary | Newfoundland in the North Atlantic World, 1929-1949 | Nominee |
| 1988 | Jeffrey Simpson | Spoils of Power: The Politics of Patronage | Nominee |
| 1989 | Modris Eksteins | Rites of Spring | Winner |
| 1989 | John Ayre | Northrop Frye | Nominee |
| 1989 | Patrick Brode | The Odyssey of John Anderson | Nominee |
| 1989 | Barbara Carey | The Year in Pictures | Nominee |
| 1989 | Ken Dryden and Roy MacGregor | Home Game: Hockey and Life in Canada | Nominee |
| 1989 | John English | The Life of Lester B. Pearson, Volume I: Shadow of Heaven, 1897–1948 | Nominee |
| 1989 | Brian Loring Villa | Unauthorized Action | Nominee |
| 1989 | Alan Walker | Franz Liszt, Volume 2: The Weimar Years, 1848-1861 | Nominee |
| 1989 | William Westfall | Two Worlds | Nominee |
| 1989 | Ronald Wright | Time Among the Maya | Nominee |
| 1990 | Alice Munro | Friend of My Youth | Winner |
| 1990 | Donald Akenson | At Face Value: The Life and Times of Eliza McCormack/John White | Nominee |
| 1990 | Pierre Berton | The Great Depression 1929-1939 | Nominee |
| 1990 | Dionne Brand | No Language Is Neutral | Nominee |
| 1990 | Mary di Michele | Luminous Emergencies | Nominee |
| 1990 | Northrop Frye | Words with Power: Being a Second Study of the Bible and Literature | Nominee |
| 1990 | Jack Granatstein and Robert Bothwell | Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy | Nominee |
| 1990 | Ann-Marie MacDonald | Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) | Nominee |
| 1990 | Gabrielle Poulin | La Couronne d'oubli | Nominee |
| 1990 | Diane Schoemperlen | The Man of My Dreams | Nominee |
| 1991 | Margaret Atwood | Wilderness Tips | Winner |
| 1991 | Constance Beresford-Howe | A Serious Widow | Nominee |
| 1991 | Eliza Clark | Miss You Like Crazy | Nominee |
| 1991 | Robertson Davies | Murther and Walking Spirits | Nominee |
| 1991 | Janette Turner Hospital | Isobars | Nominee |
| 1991 | Norman Levine | Something Happened Here | Nominee |
| 1991 | David Macfarlane | The Danger Tree | Nominee |
| 1991 | Alberto Manguel | News from a Foreign Country Came | Nominee |
| 1991 | Anne Michaels | Miner's Pond | Nominee |
| 1991 | Rohinton Mistry | Such a Long Journey | Nominee |
| 1991 | John Sawatsky | Mulroney: The Politics of Ambition | Nominee |
| 1992 | Michael Ondaatje | The English Patient | Winner |
| 1992 | Carole Corbeil | Voice-Over | Nominee |
| 1992 | John English | The Worldly Years: The Life of Lester Pearson 1949-1972 | Nominee |
| 1992 | Joan Finnigan | Wintering Over | Nominee |
| 1992 | Barbara Gowdy | We So Seldom Look on Love | Nominee |
| 1992 | Sandra Gwyn | Tapestry of War: A Private View of Canadians in the Great War | Nominee |
| 1992 | Steven Heighton | Flight Paths of the Emperor | Nominee |
| 1992 | Janette Turner Hospital | The Last Magician | Nominee |
| 1992 | Ronald Wright | Stolen Continents | Nominee |
| 1993 | Margaret Atwood | The Robber Bride | Winner |
| 1993 | Jane Urquhart | Away | Winner |
| 1993 | Andrée Christensen | Pavane pour la naissance d'une infante defunte | Nominee |
| 1993 | Leslie Smith Dow | Adele Hugo: La Miserable | Nominee |
| 1993 | Ernest Hillen | The Way of a Boy: A Memoir of Java | Nominee |
| 1993 | John Ibbitson | The Night Hazel Came to Town | Nominee |
| 1993 | Ivan Kalmar | The Trotskys, Freuds and Woody Allens: Portraits of a Culture | Nominee |
| 1993 | Pierre Léon | Sur le piste des Jolicoeur | Nominee |
| 1993 | Leon Surette | The Birth of Modernism: Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats and the Occult | Nominee |
| 1993 | Susan Swan | The Wives of Bath | Nominee |