'I started to scream': Winnipegger wins prestigious literary award for debut poetry collection
The works of two Winnipeggers have been recognized with prestigious Governor General’s Literary Awards.
Chimwemwe Undi’s “Scientific Marvel: Poems” was honoured in the poetry category and Nigaan Sinclair’s “Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre” won in the non-fiction category.
- The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
- Sign up now for daily CTV News Winnipeg newsletters
“(When they told me) I was in my office on a Teams call that I had to climb off of,” Undi told CTV Morning Live Winnipeg.
“A pretty typical Monday morning for most people and I started to scream, and they told me it was confidential, so I had to kind of muffle my reaction.”
Undi and Sinclair’s works were selected from 1,529 nominated books. Fourteen Governor General’s Literary Awards were given in all in 2024.
The prestigious awards come with a $25,000 prize for each author.
“Scientific Marvel” marks Undi’s debut full-length collection of poetry. Her work finds firm roots in Undi’s hometown.
“Artists often say your first work is one that you have been writing for your whole life,” she said.
“The questions that I think about in “Scientific Marvel” are very fundamentally about Winnipeg and what it means to live in the city, what the future of the city might look like, what it means to live on Indigenous land in 2024.”
Undi was born in Winnipeg, moved to Namibia when she was two years old, and moved back to our city when she was 13. This “complicated pathway,” as Undi describes it, led her to feel like a bit of an outsider.
It created a natural tendency to observe, she said, something that continues to drive her writing life.
Another influence in her poetry – her day job. When she’s not writing, she is practicing law. Its language infiltrates and informs much of her writing, she said.
“I think any poet would tell you any sort of interesting or unique language finds its way into your writing. It just happened to work in a field that is very language-driven."
- With files from CTV’s Rachel Lagacé
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Donald Trump picks former U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra as ambassador to Canada
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has nominated former diplomat and U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra to be the American ambassador to Canada.
Genetic evidence backs up COVID-19 origin theory that pandemic started in seafood market
A group of researchers say they have more evidence to suggest the COVID-19 pandemic started in a Chinese seafood market where it spread from infected animals to humans. The evidence is laid out in a recent study published in Cell, a scientific journal, nearly five years after the first known COVID-19 outbreak.
This is how much money you need to make to buy a house in Canada's largest cities
The average salary needed to buy a home keeps inching down in cities across Canada, according to the latest data.
'My two daughters were sleeping': London Ont. family in shock after their home riddled with gunfire
A London father and son they’re shocked and confused after their home was riddled with bullets while young children were sleeping inside.
Smuggler arrested with 300 tarantulas strapped to his body
Police in Peru have arrested a man caught trying to leave the country with 320 tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants strapped to his body.
Boissonnault out of cabinet to 'focus on clearing the allegations,' Trudeau announces
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced embattled minister Randy Boissonnault is out of cabinet.
Baby dies after being reported missing in midtown Toronto: police
A four-month-old baby is dead after what Toronto police are calling a “suspicious incident” at a Toronto Community Housing building in the city’s midtown area on Wednesday afternoon.
Sask. woman who refused to provide breath sample did not break the law, court finds
A Saskatchewan woman who refused to provide a breath sample after being stopped by police in Regina did not break the law – as the officer's request was deemed not lawful given the circumstances.
Parole board reverses decision and will allow families of Paul Bernardo's victims to attend upcoming parole hearing in person
The families of the victims of Paul Bernardo will be allowed to attend the serial killer’s upcoming parole hearing in person, the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) says.