The Trillium Literary Prize, which recognizes works written in French by Ontario authors, recognized Nicolas Weinberg’s collection Vivre ou quasi on Thursday evening.
This collection of seven short stories, centered around the difficulty of existing, was published last summer by Éditions L’Interligne. The author, who was born in France, worked as a journalist at Radio-Canada in Montreal before moving to Toronto where he is a translator. Winners receive a $20,000 scholarship.
Among the five finalists were, among others, The End of Our Programs, by Martin Bélanger (Del Busso), as well as The Scent of the Whale (Flammarion Québec), the first novel by Paul Ruban, an Ottawa screenwriter and translator who had already won the prize in 2020 for his collection of short stories Puncture in a hearse.
The Trillium Poetry Prize in French, awarded alternately with the Trillium Children’s Book Prize (which will be awarded next year), was not awarded this year due to an insufficient number of applications. Two works in English were also rewarded Thursday evening.
The Trillium Prize was established in 1987 by the Ontario government to promote the works of Ontario writers. A French-speaking component was added in 1994.