05/02/2026
👏Congratulations, Maggie! Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig MDiv ‘11 is an accomplished author, respected community advocate, and treasured alum of Trinity College, Toronto, Faculty of Divinity. Recognition for her writing and work is well-deserved!
Congratulations to Maggie Helwig, winner of the 2026 Prize for Political Writing!🏆Helwig has won the prize for her book Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community.
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“A necessary, on-the-ground view of Canada’s homelessness crisis, Encampment succeeds where much of political handwringing and wishful thinking around housing and poverty consistently fail. Maggie Helwig never lets compassion impede lucidity, and her book avoids both cynicism and battle fatigue. The result: a clear-eyed call to not look away, but to deepen understanding of the issue. As more and more of our neighbours find themselves living unsheltered, this book is essential reading.”—2026 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize jury (Norma Dunning, Chantal Hébert, and Paul Wells)
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The Shaughnessy Cohen Prize, sponsored by , was awarded to Helwig at Politics & the Pen, an annual fundraiser in Ottawa organized by a third-party committee to benefit Writers’ Trust. A total of $460,000 was raised at the event in direct support of Canadian authors.
Learn more about this year’s winner at writerstrust.com/ShaughnessyCohen
Coach House Books
