Dionne Brand, Canisia Lubrin among Windham-Campbell Prize winners

NEW YORK – Canadian writers Dionne Brand and Canisia Lubrin are among this year’s winners of Windham-Campbell Prizes, which provide US$165,000 for each recipient to focus on work “independent of financial concerns.”

A renowned poet, essayist and novelist, Toronto-based Brand is being recognized for her contributions to fiction, while Whitby, Ont.-based Lubrin is being honoured for her poetry.

Other winners include playwright Michael R. Jackson, author-critic Vivian Gornick, fiction and nonfiction writer Renee Gladman, the Dutch author-translator Kate Briggs, U.S. poet Natalie Scenters-Zapico and dramatist Nathan Alan Davis.

The awards, administered through Yale University, were announced Monday.

The prize was established in 2013 and named for the late novelist Donald Windham and his longtime partner Sandy M. Campbell.

Previous Canadian winners include David Chariandy and Andre Alexis.