Lawrence Hill Wins Literary Prize in France

The French translation of a novel by Lawrence Hill, creative writing professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies in the College of Arts, has been recognized with a literary prize in France. 

Aminata, the French translation of Hill’s 2007 novel The Book of Negroes, won Le Prix Folio Télérama des Libraires 2023 after it was published in France earlier this year, translated by Carole Noël. 

The Book of Negroes won the 2007 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the 2008 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. It was the winning selection for CBC Radio’s Canada Reads 2009. Aminata went on to win the 2013 edition of Radio-Canada’s Le Combat des livres.

The TV adaptation of The Book of Negroes, which Hill co-wrote for a six-part television miniseries, won 11 Canadian Screen Awards   

Hill is the author of 11 books, including The Book of Negroes and his recent children’s book, Beatrice and Croc Harry. His work often focuses on global and Black Canadian history, the search for home, mixed-race identity and the experiences of refugees. 

The author and professor has also been nominated for a Canadian Screen Award and been invested into the Order of Canada.   

Hill joined the School of English and Theatre Studies in 2016 and is the founder of Gryphons Read, a campus-wide common reading program.