Canisia Lubrin wins Carol Shields Prize for Fiction

St. Lucia-born author Canisia Lubrin has been awarded the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction for her bold and lyrical short story collection Code Noir. The win earns Lubrin $150,000 USD (approximately $207,500 CAD), making it the richest international literary prize dedicated to women and non-binary writers in the United States and Canada. In addition to the cash award, Lubrin will enjoy a five-night residency at the acclaimed Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland.

Code Noir draws its title and inspiration from a notorious 1685 decree by France’s Louis XIV, a document known as the “Black Code,” which governed the lives—and ownership—of enslaved people in French colonies. Lubrin’s work engages deeply with this historical text, reimagining its implications through the lens of Black resistance, trauma, and legacy. The collection blends historical resonance with speculative storytelling, offering what the prize jury described as “polyphonic” narratives that span time and perspective.

“Code Noir contains multitudes,” the jury remarked in its citation. “Canisia Lubrin’s prose invites readers to inhabit landscapes of past, present, and future—confronting suffering, communion, and transformation. This is a virtuoso collection that breaks new ground in short fiction.”

Lubrin, who resides in Whitby, Ontario, has steadily risen in the Canadian literary scene. Her debut poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis received multiple award nominations, while her second collection, The Dyzgraphxst, won the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. Code Noir was also recently shortlisted for the 2024 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

The jury for this year’s Carol Shields Prize was chaired by American novelist Diana Abu-Jaber and included Canadian authors Tessa McWatt, Kim Fu, Norma Dunning, and American writer Jeanne Thornton.

Four other finalists were also recognized, each receiving $12,500 USD ($17,300 CAD): Pale Shadows by Canadian novelist Dominique Fortier (translated by Rhonda Mullins), All Fours by Miranda July, Liars by Sarah Manguso, and River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure. All finalists and the winner will take part in a group retreat at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.

The Carol Shields Prize was conceived in 2012 following a panel discussion involving Canadian author Susan Swan, British Women’s Prize founder Kate Mosse, Australian novelist Gail Jones, and moderator Anne Giardini, daughter of the late Carol Shields. It was created to address the stark gender imbalance in literary recognition. According to statistics from groups like VIDA and Canadian Women in Literary Arts (CWILA), women writers have historically received far less critical and award recognition than their male counterparts. Since 1909, only 17 women have won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The prize’s namesake, Carol Shields, was a literary powerhouse whose works—including The Stone Diaries, Larry’s Party, and Unless—earned her national and international acclaim. The Stone Diaries won both the Governor General’s Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Shields passed away in 2003, but her legacy continues through this prize that champions underrepresented voices in fiction.

Lubrin’s Code Noir now joins a growing list of essential works being honoured for their courage, craft, and commitment to storytelling that reshapes the literary canon.

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