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3mo ago

Maggie Helwig’s Encampment Wins 2026 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize

The jury cast the book as a necessary on-the-ground account that challenges Canada’s response to homelessness.

The Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig stands beside the area where marginalized people are living in tents outside of the west wall of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields at College Street and Bellevue Avenue in Kensington Market in Toronto on October 25, 2022. Photo/Michael Hudson
Rev. Canon Maggie Helwig stands amid structures as Toronto city workers prepare to clear the unhoused persons encampment at St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Church, in Toronto, on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Overview

  • Maggie Helwig won the $40,000 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize on Wednesday at Ottawa’s Politics and the Pen gala for Encampment, with four finalists receiving $5,000 each.
  • Encampment recounts a 2022 churchyard encampment beside St. Stephen-in-the-Fields in Toronto’s Kensington Market, where Helwig serves as priest.
  • The City of Toronto cleared that encampment in October, five months after the book’s release, citing combustible materials and an elevated fire risk.
  • The prize jury called the book a clear-eyed appeal to not look away from homelessness and praised its first-hand reporting and moral clarity.
  • Helwig says she will use the award money for direct help such as first-month rent and dental care, building on how she used last year’s Toronto Book Award funds.