Georgio Russell and Anna Sokolova have won the 2025 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award. It is the first time the prize has been awarded to two writers.
Each poet will receive a $3,000 cash prize and mentorship from a Canadian author of their choosing.
Through a blind adjudication process, this year’s jury of Canadian writers Lydia Perovic, Madeleine Thien, and Shashi Bhat chose the two Toronto-based writers from 960 entries from across Canada, nearly double the number of entries from the previous year.
Georgio Russell is a Bahamian poet, a graduate of the University of the West Indies, and a fellow of the Obsidian Foundation and the Undocupoets. His winning poetry collection, Regatta of Ghosts, was described by the jury as “evocative, compressed, and rich in history and allusion” while “boldly reclaiming the vocabulary of oppression with supreme confidence and style”.
Anna Sokolova is a Russian-Canadian writer with an English MA in Creative Writing from the University of Toronto, where they are currently working on the latest issue of the program’s literary journal, echolocation. Their winning poetry collection, Fragments to a Friend, was described by the jury as “delicious, energetic, and playfully colloquial, exploring friendship, girlhood, and the pain of longing” with “extraordinary range and a fresh, inventive voice.”
The jury also selected five finalists: Edie Reaney Chunn (based in Vancouver; recognized for their poetry collection, The Letters of Puppet and Clown), Emily Gaudet (based in Montreal; recognized for her poetry collection, Catherine and Simone), Gwen Aube (based in Montreal; recognized for her poetry collection, Missed Connections with Tall Girls), Helen Han Wei Luo (from Vancouver; recognized for her collection, A Compendium of Humble Creatures), and Mona’a Malik (recognized for her story, “The Last Mystery”).
To learn more about these writers, read excerpts from their works, as well as praise from the jury.
First awarded in 2013, the RBC / PEN Canada New Voices Award has for over ten years encouraged new writing and provided a space for unpublished Canadian writers, aged 17 and over. Every previous winner has gone on to publish their first book, novel or poetry collection. Previous winners include Christine Wu, Em Dial, Deepa Rajagopalan and Noor Naga.
The award is funded by the RBC Emerging Artists Program, which supports the arts and the role they play in building vibrant communities and strong economies. Since its inception, the RBC program has supported over 35,000 emerging artists across the globe.
About PEN Canada
PEN Canada is a nonpartisan organization that celebrates literature, defends freedom of expression, and assists writers in peril at home and abroad. Based in Toronto, the English-language Canadian centre was founded in 1983 and is proud to be one of over 140 centres of PEN International.
Media Contact
Eilish Waller, Communications Coordinator, PEN Canada
ewaller@pencanda.ca
