Ottawa poet wins RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award

An Ottawa poet, Nancy Hugget, has won the RBC PEN Canada NEW Voices Award, marking the oldest recipient of the annual honour.

The annual award focuses on short stories, creative nonfiction, journalism and poetry, while encouraging new writing providing a space where unpublished Canadian writers can submit their work.

Huggett told CTV Morning Live Tuesday her poetry collection examined her experience as a caregiver for her daughter, Jess, who suffered a stroke in 2015 that affected the frontal lobe of her brain.

Though she was writing poetry and creative nonfiction when she was young, she opted for a different career, as it did not pay much at the time.

"I wrote on the side more than anything else," she said.

But after her daughter's stroke, she adopted a full-time caregiver role.

"After her stroke, I didn't write at all, because caregiving was such an intense period of time," Hugget said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hugget couldn’t go to yoga classes anymore. That was when she took a writing class and started writing again, she adds.

The award makes Hugget proud of her accomplishment as an emerging writer, she says.

When it comes to creativity and aging, she says "if I don’t do it now, then I’m not gonna do it."

"For me, I get up in the morning about 5-5:30 before everybody’s up and I sit down and I write. I show up and be present for whatever is going to come," Hugget said.

More information about the award is available online.