Sheung-King wins Writers’ Trust fiction prize for ‘Batshit Seven’

By Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press on November 19, 2024.

TORONTO – Richmond, B.C. author Sheung-King has won the $60,000 Writers’ Trust fiction prize for “Batshit Seven,” a novel about a detached millennial living through the Hong Kong protests.

The jury praised the work as “darkly hilarious, and stunningly original.”

Sheung-King is the pen name for Aaron Tang, who accepted the award at the Writers Trust Awards ceremony in Toronto, where six other writers were also honoured.

In his speech, Tang said at times of global crisis and war, “humanity diminishes” and “we turn to writing for clarity.”

He thanked his fellow artists for writing against state violence and genocide, and ended his speech with, “Free Palestine and ceasefire now” – a call made on stage throughout the ceremony.

Another big winner is Toronto writer Martha Baillie, who takes home the $75,000 non-fiction prize for the family memoir “There Is No Blue.”

The jury said Baillie’s book of three essays “rattles the bones of what it is to be in imperfect relationships with the people we are tied to by birth and blood.”

Earlier in the night, Anthony Oliveira was awarded $12,000 for the LGBTQ2S+ emerging writers prize for the queer love story “Dayspring.”

Four career prizes were also handed out to authors for their contributions to Canadian literature.

They include “Do Not Say We Have Nothing” author Madeleine Thien, who won the $25,000 Writers’ Trust Engel Findley Award for a body of work the jury called “masterful.”

Playwright Marie Clements was awarded the $40,000 Matt Cohen Award, an increase from $25,000 that was announced on stage, while Sara O’Leary took home the $25,000 Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People.

Rita Wong was not at the ceremony but was awarded the $60,000 Latner Griffin Writers’ Trust Poetry Prize.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 19, 2024.