TORONTO — Acclaimed author Tanya Talaga has chosen Indigenous writer Alicia Elliott as the winner of the RBC Taylor Emerging Writer Award.
The honour comes with $10,000 and mentorship by Talaga, who won the RBC Taylor Prize in February for her book, “Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City.”
Talaga’s win came with the right to choose an up-and-coming talent to receive the emerging writer award.
She says of Elliott: “She is lyrical, heart-felt and she tells searing truths of Canada today.”
Elliott says the news is “incredibly humbling.”
She lives in Brantford, Ont. and has been published by the Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Maisonneuve, Today’s Parent and Reader’s Digest.
The emerging writer award was established to shed light and offer support to a Canadian working on a significant writing project.
Talaga hailed Elliott for speaking “truths we all need to listen to.”
“Alicia is the voice of our youth, the next generation,” Talaga said in a release.
RBC Taylor Prize founder Noreen Taylor also praised Elliott for “a deep passion for the truth.”
“When we look at Alicia Elliott we see a strong fearless writer who has an impressive background as an editor, an essayist and is a dedicated Indigenous journalist writing about the issues facing Indigenous peoples in Canada,” Taylor added in the statement.
