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News Release

October 12, 2006

U of G Prof Wins Harbourfront Festival Prize

University of Guelph English professor Dionne Brand is the winner of the Harbourfront Festival Prize linked to the International Festival of Authors, which runs Oct. 18 to 28.

The $10,000 award was inaugurated in 1984 to honour individuals who have made a contribution to the world of books and writing. Past recipients include Timothy Findley and Michael Ondaatje.

“International Readings is thrilled to select Dionne Brand for the Harbourfront Festival Prize,” said Geoffrey Taylor, director of international readings at the Harbourfront Centre. “Her importance to Toronto was recently recognized by the Toronto Book Award for her novel What We Long For, and her importance to our national literary community is reflected in all her writing as well as her commitment to her students as professor of English at the University of Guelph.”

Trinidad-born Brand is the author of eight volumes of poetry, including the acclaimed Land to Light On, which won a Governor General’s Award, and thirsty, which won the Pat Lowther Award for poetry. The Toronto resident also wrote In Another Place, Not Here, a 1998 New York Times notable book, and At the Full and Change of the Moon.