Canadian writer Canisia Lubrin wins $150K Carol Shields literary prize

Writer Canisia Lubrin, known for her poetry, has won this year’s Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, which honors women and nonbinary storytellers in the U.S. and Canada.

Lubrin’s debut fiction work, 2024’s Code Noir, is a collection made up of 59 short stories – jumping off of Louis XIV’s “Black Code,” which established the rules of slavery in France and the French colonies.

“Canisia Lubrin’s prose is polyphonic,” wrote the prize judges in a statement announcing Lubrin’s win. “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.”

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction is relatively new. Named after the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, it aims to increase literary visibility for books written by women and nonbinary authors. The prize has drawn attention for the hefty check its winners receive – $150,000. In comparison, National Book Award winners receive $10,000, Pulitzer winners receive $15,000, and Booker Prize winners receive £50,000 (about $66,000). Shields prize winners also get a five-night stay at Fogo Island.

Lubrin beat out finalists Dominique Fortier, whose work Pale Shadows was translated by Rhonda Mullins, Miranda July (All Fours), Sarah Manguso (Liars), and Aube Rey Lescure (River East, River West) for the win.