Maurice Vellekoop and Jake Byrne win 2025 Trillium Book Awards
The prize recognizes the best fiction and poetry books from writers in Ontario
Maurice Vellekoop and Jake Byrne are the English-language winners for the 2025 Trillium Book Awards.
Established in 1987, the prize annually recognizes the 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 winner of the poetry category will receive $10,000.
Vellekoop won the Trillium Book Award for his graphic memoir I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together, which depicts his intense childhood and difficult young adulthood as a young gay person in a strict Christian household.
As he ventures out on his own, he explores his passion for art and is set on finding romance and is met with violent attacks and the anxiety surrounding the AIDS era. I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together shows an artist's personal journey to self-love and acceptance.
Vellekoop is a Toronto-born writer and artist. He has been an illustrator for the past three decades, including companies like Air Canada and Bush Irish Whiskey. He won the 2024 Toronto Book Award and the Doug Wright Award for best comic for I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together. He is also the author of A Nut at the Opera.
Byrne won the poetry award for DADDY, a collection that explores patriarchy, intergenerational trauma and queer desire. It examines how to break free from convention and control to be honest and vulnerable.
Byrne is a poet and writer based in Toronto. Their debut poetry collection is Celebrate Pride with Lockheed Martin.
The winner of the Prix Trillium is Aristote Kavungu for Céline au Congo.
Mireille Messier won the Prix du livre jeunesse Trillium, the french-language award for young people's literature, for Le bonnet magique.
Last year's winners were Nina Dunic for The Clarion and A. Light Zachary for More Sure.
Previous Trillium Award winners include Margaret Atwood, Dionne Brand and Alice Munro.
