Writers’ Trust sets up award for low-profile book workers: non-fiction editors

TORONTO — The Writers’ Trust of Canada is introducing a $25,000 award for book editors, offering flowers to a group generally inclined to stay out of the spotlight, says sponsor Nancy Flight.

The organization says the prize, which will go to non-fiction editors, is the largest of its kind in Canada.

Flight, an editor for 45 years, says she’s watched the profession evolve over the course of her career.

When she got started, she says, it was the wild west: anyone with a university degree could get a job as an editor and people were mostly self-taught.

Since then, courses and post-secondary programs have cropped up — some of which Flight has taught — and Editors Canada has established industry awards.

But the Writers’ Trust Awards are on a different scale, with an audience that transcends the industry.

The Writers’ Trust says the award will be selected by a three-member jury of writers and editors.

It says criteria for the finalists will include testimony of how the editor helped the author, including how they ensured the author’s voice was consistent throughout the book, how they communicated with the author, whether they dealt with special challenges and how the editor’s guidance was “instrumental to the book’s success.”

The Writers’ Trust says this is the first year the prize will be handed out as part of a multi-year commitment of $483,000.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 28, 2026.