Maurice Vellekoop and Jake Byrne have been named the 2025 recipients of the prestigious Trillium Book Awards, Ontario’s top literary honors.
Vellekoop won the Trillium Book Award for his graphic memoir I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together (Random House Canada/Penguin Random House Canada). Poet Jake Byrne received the Trillium Book Award for Poetry for his debut collection DADDY (Brick Books).
In the French-language categories, Aristote Kavungu took home the Prix Trillium for his novel Céline au Congo (Les Éditions du Boréal), while Mireille Messier won the Prix du livre jeunesse Trillium for her children’s book Le bonnet magique (Comme des géants).
The winners were selected from a shortlist of 16 titles and announced at a ceremony in Toronto on June 18.
Now in its 38th year, the Trillium Book Awards celebrate literary excellence among Ontario authors writing in both English and French. The main book award and the Prix Trillium each carry a prize of $20,000. The poetry and French-language children’s book awards each come with a $10,000 prize. Publishers of the winning titles also receive funding to support marketing and promotion efforts.
The awards are administered by Ontario Creates, an agency of the provincial government that supports Ontario’s creative industries.
This marks the second major award for Vellekoop’s memoir, which also won the 2024 Toronto Book Award.
