I’m very honoured to have won the 2015 Dayne Ogilvie Prize, awarded each year by the Writers’ Trust of Canada. Thank you to the Writers’ Trust and congrats to the two recipients of honours of distinction, Vivek Shraya and Casey Plett, both writers whose work I’ve read and enjoyed.

Jury citation:

With assured debuts in two genres, Alex Leslie melds remarkable acuity of vision with a refreshing eagerness for formal experimentation. She’s at once a writer’s writer and an accomplished teller of tales. People Who Disappear, her artfully gritty and ultimately uplifting story collection, presents fresh and nuanced portraits of West Coast living far from the affluence and rhythms of the city. In rendering the inhabitants of The things I heard about you’s enticing prose poems – solitary ferry rider, outlier schoolgirl, river’s edge creature, and pariah scrounger – Leslie displays a tremendous gift for compassion that’s equal to a talent for technique.