5 Canadian emerging writers named Writers' Trust 2023 Rising Stars

Manahil Bandukwala, Katia Belkhodja, Erica Violet Lee, Julie Mannell and Terese Mason Pierre are the 2023 Writers' Trust of Canada's Rising Stars.

Launched in 2019, the Writers' Trust Rising Stars program is an initiative supporting Canadian writers early in their careers. Each year, five talented emerging writers are chosen and mentored by prominent Canadian authors.

The recipients also receive $5,000 and attend a two-week self-directed writing residency in partnership with Artscape Gibraltar Point.

Artscape Gibraltar Point is a partner of the CBC Literary Prizes.

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Manahil Bandukwala is a Pakistani writer, artistand editor currently based in Mississauga. She works for Arc Poetry Magazine, Canthius and her debut poetry collection, MONUMENT, was published in 2022. In 2019 Bandukwala was longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize for her poem, To ride an art horse. She has also been a finalist for the bpNichol Chapbook Award in 2021.

Bandukwala was selected by Shani Mootoo, Ontario-based fiction writer and poet. Mootoo is the recipient of the K.M. Hunter Artist Award, a Chalmers Arts Fellowship and the James Duggins Mid-Career Novelists' Prize.

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"Bandukwala gives us what we perennially yearn for, but always anew, in literature: the exposition and understanding of the human heart," Mootoo said in a press statement. "'Page-turning' and 'storytelling' are not words usually associated with works of poetry, and yet they are apt descriptors of Bandukwala's impressive offerings to date."

Katia Belkhodja was selected by 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Catherine Leroux. Belkhodjas is a Montreal-based author and teacher whose work has appeared in magazines such as Les crits, Le Sabordand Moebius. She was a member ofpeer assessment committees for the Governor General's Literary Award in 2022.

"Her stories are legends hidden inside tales, like literary matryoshkas. Her worlds and characters sweep, swell, and shape-shift to honour the absolute core of her work: the human heart," said mentor and author Leroux of Belkhodja.

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Erica Violet Lee is a nehiyaw writer, scholar and community organizer currently residing in Saskatoon. Lee's writing has been featured in many publications including CBC Indigenous and Brick magazine. Her debut poetry collection, On The Prairies We Will Live Forever is set to be released in 2024.

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Lee was selected byCandace Savage,winnerof the 2012 Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction,

"Without forgetting or minimizing trauma, Lee dares to invoke a future 'dripping sacred' in which Indigenous people on the prairies are free to flourish," said Savage in a statement.

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LISTEN | Erica Violet Lee on Unreserved:

Unreserved8:01Erica Violet Lee

Erica Violet Lee posted a selfie on November 29th of herself at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Summit. The young Cree woman was sticking her tongue out with Sask. Premier Brad Wall in the background. She remains unrepentant despite critics.

Julie Mannell is an author and former acquisitions editor based in Welland, Ont. Mannell was named one of the "Top 30 poets under 30" by In/Words Magazine and was shortlisted for the 2018 CBC Poetry Prize.

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Mannell will be mentored by Tlicho Dene writer Richard Van Camp. Van Camp has written over 20 books across multiple genres and won the CODE Burt Awards for Indigenous YA literature in 2021 for Moccasin Square Gardens.

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"The word that I wrote down when I read Julie Mannell's application was 'velotic,'" said selector Van Camp. "I can already feel her velocity and hunger as a writer and composer of wonder.

LISTEN | Richard Van Campon the power of storytelling:

Terese Mason Pierre was selected by writer and teacher Wayde Compton. Pierre is a Toronto-based writer and the co-editor-in-chief of Augur Magazine. She recently won the 2023 Writers' Trust McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize.

"Terese Mason Pierre's writing is startlingly versatile, moving back and forth and between the literary and the speculative, and artfully engaging social issues and deep character formation at once," said selector Compton. "Hers is work that is exciting and wide-ranging, and I am thrilled to see where she takes us next."

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The Writers' Trust Rising Stars program is supported by presenting sponsor BMO Financial Group and five founding program sponsors: Margaret Atwood, Jim Balsillie, Kari Cullen and WilliamBonnell, Clair Duff in memory of Catherine Shepard, and Deb MacLeod and WardSellers.