The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild congratulates Tim Lilburn on receiving the 2024 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence
The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild is proud to announce that the winner of the 2024 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence is Tim Lilburn. The award honours a Saskatchewan writer who has written a substantial body of acclaimed literary work and has had a significant impact on writing in Saskatchewan. It carries a prize of $10,000 and a framed limited edition print of a painting by well-known Saskatchewan artist Dorothy Knowles.
Tim Lilburn lives in the Bowker Creek watershed in W̱SÁNEĆ territory on Vancouver Island. He is the author of twelve books of poetry, including Harmonia Mundi, The House of Charlemagne, The Names, Assiniboia, Orphic Politics, Kill-site, Moosewood Sandhills and To the River. His poetry has received the Governor General’s Award, The Canadian Authors’ Association Award, the European Medal of Poetry and Art (the Homer Prize) and the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award, among other prizes. His poetry has been anthologized and translated widely. Lilburn is also the author of three earlier essay collections concerned with desire and place, Living in the World as if It Were Home, Going Home and The Larger Conversation: Contemplation and Place, and editor of two other influential books on poetics. A new essay collection, Numinous Seditions: Interiority and Climate Change, appeared from the University of Alberta Press in 2023. He has taught at the University of Victoria, the University of Saskatchewan, St. Peter’s College and Middlebury College and worked with the dance company New Dance Horizons as a writer and performer, collaborating with directors Edward Poitras and Robin Poitras. He has been a poetry editor for Grain and was one of the founders of Jackpine Press.
In choosing Tim, the jury for the 2024 Award cited the following: “For nearly 40 years, Tim Lilburn has made profound and indelible contributions to Canadian culture. Born in Regina, SK on Treaty 4 Territory, Lilburn is primarily known as a poet, and his twelve volumes of poetry have earned him some of Canada’s most prestigious prizes including the Governor General’s Award, The Canadian Authors’ Association Award, and the Saskatchewan Book of the Year Award. He has also received the Order of Canada. Lilburn's work concerning environmental ethics has been prescient and has culminated in three widely influential volumes of non-fiction, written while teaching creative writing and philosophy at the University of Saskatchewan, St. Peter’s College, the University of Victoria, and Middlebury College. All of this has added to Lilburn’s esteemed reputation as a poet, teacher, and mentor, and we are privileged to award him the 2024 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence.”
Lawyers and philanthropists Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg established this prestigious award in 2010. The three Honorary Patrons of the Award are His Honour the Honourable Russ Mirasty, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan; His Worship Charlie Clark, Mayor of the City of Saskatoon; and President of the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Peter Stoicheff. The Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence is one of the most lucrative provincial awards in Canada.
To learn more about Tim and his work, please watch his YouTube video celebrating his win: https://youtu.be/PFk8QCpD94A?si=qTxlU0YuZZhUGQDB
For additional Award background information, including a full list of previous winners, please visit www.skwriter.com.