Nalo Hopkinson and Canisia Lubrin shortlisted for the 2025 Sunburst Award

CBC

22-07-2025

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Nalo Hopkinson and Canisia Lubrin are among the shortlisted authors for the 2025 Sunburst Award for Excellence in Canadian Literature of the Fantastic.
After a four-year hiatus, the award is back, offering increased prize money of $3,000 and recognizing Canadian writers for their speculative fiction.
Hopkinson is nominated for her novel Blackheart Man, which takes place on the magical island of Chynchin, and draws from a Caribbean folktale told to scare children into behaving. In Jamaica, this character is called the Blackheart Man.
In the novel, the Blackheart Man's sinister presence coincides with the arrival of colonizers trying to force a trade agreement. Children start disappearing and tar statues come to life.
Veycosi, a mischievous and fame-seeking griot (poet and musician), fears that he's connected with the Blackheart Man's resurgence, and finds himself in over his head trying to stop him.
Hopkinson is the author of many novels and short stories including Brown Girl in the Ring, which won the Warner Aspect First Novel Contest and was defended on Canada Reads in 2008 by Jemeni. Her other books include Sister Mine, Midnight Robber, The Chaos, The New Moon's Arms and Skin Folk. In 2021, she won the Damon Knight Grand Master award, a lifetime achievement award for science fiction.
Lubrin is shortlisted for her debut short story collection Code Noir, which ranges in genre from contemporary realism to historical fiction and speculative fantasy.
The Code Noir, or the Black Code, was a set of 59 articles decreed by Louis XVI in 1685, which regulated ownership of slaves in all French colonies. In Code Noir, Lubrin reflects on these codes to examine the legacy of enslavement and colonization, and the inherent power of Black resistance.
The inherent power of resistance: How Canisia Lubrin's debut novel Code Noir reflects on postcolonial agency
Lubrin is a writer, editor and teacher. Her debut poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis was longlisted for the Gerald Lambert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award.
Her poetry collection The Dyzgraphxst, won the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. It also won the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Literary Prize for poetry.
The other shortlisted authors are Frankie Barnet for Mood Swings, Sydney Hegele for Bird Suit and Clayton B. Smith for A Seal of Salvage.
The shortlist was selected by jurors Natalee Caple, Geoff Ryman and Lorina Stephens out of 78 books.
The winner will be announced in the fall.