Stuart Ross wins $20K Trillium Book Award for best Ontario book

Stuart Ross has won the Trillium Book Award for his genre-defying workThe Book of Grief and Hamburgers while Sanna Wani has won the Trillium Book Award for Poetry forMy Grief, the Sun.

Established in 1987, the prize annually recognizesthe 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 winnerof the poetry category will receive $10,000. This year, the categoryfor best book of children's literature in French will also be awarded.

The Book of Grief and Hamburgersis a book that brings togethermemoir, essays and poetic meditation. It was writtenafter the sudden death of Ross'sbrother, leaving him as thelast living member of his family. The Book of Grief and Hamburgersreflects on what it means to grieve the people one loves and how to go on living in the face of an enormous accumulation of loss.

Ross is a writer, editor and teacher. He is the author of several books of poetry, fiction and essays includingYou Exist,PocketsandA Sparrow Came Down Resplendent.Ross was the 2019 recipient of the prestigious Harbourfront Festival Prize. He lives in Cobourg, Ont.

My Grief, the Sunis a collection of magical poems filled with love and grief. They touch on everything from filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki'sPrincess Mononoketo German Orientalist scholarship on early Islam. Moving from the Missinnihe River in Canada to the Zabarwan Mountains in Kashmir, Sanna Wani explores the world from a poet's perspective.

Wani is a poet who lives in Mississauga, Ont.,and Srinagar, Kashmir. Her work has appeared in Brick, Poem-a-Day andBest Canadian Poetry 2020.My Grief, the Sunis her first collection of poetry.

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The French-language winners wereGilles LacombeforCirc des hirondelles andMichle LaframboiseforLe secret de Paloma.

Last year's winners included Ann Shin for her debut novelThe Last ExilesandBardia Sinaeefor his poetry collectionIntruder.

Previous Trillium Award winners includeMargaret Atwood,Dionne BrandandAlice Munro.