Poet Stuart Ross wins Trillium Book Award for ‘The Book of Grief and Hamburgers’

TORONTO – An unflinching meditation on loss and mortality has won Ontario’s top book prize.

Stuart Ross took home the $20,000 Trillium Book Award on Tuesday night for “The Book of Grief and Hamburgers.”

Ross wrote the book — which is described as a hybrid between essays, memoir and poetry — after his brother died and his closest friend was diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Meanwhile the $10,000 Trillium Book Award for Poetry went to Sanna Wani for “My Grief, the Sun.”

Gilles Lacombe won the French-language Trillium Book Award, also worth $20,000, for “Circé des hirondelles.”

“Le secret de Paloma” by Michèle Laframboise was awarded the $10,000 prize for the best French-language children’s book.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2023.