Maggie Helwig is the winner of this year’s Toronto Book Award.
She won for Encampment, a nonfiction work which offers an in-depth look at the lives of unhoused individuals in Toronto, the challenges they face, and Helwig’s own activism in advocating for their rights and humanity.
Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, the Toronto Book Awards honour books that are inspired by the city. This year, the prize amounts were doubled, with the winner receiving $20,000 and the shortlisted writers each winning $2,000.
The winner was announced at an award ceremony at the Toronto Reference Library on Oct. 15, 2025.
Maggie Helwig is a Toronto-based Anglican priest, activist and author. Her book, Girls Fall Down, was on the Toronto Book Award shortlist and selected as the One Book Toronto in 2012.
Helwig is the priest for an Anglican church in Toronto’s Kensington Market; the book tells the story of her fight to keep her churchyard open to people needing a home.
In an acceptance speech, Helwig explained that Encampment reflects her lifelong activism and a sense of urgency in responding to a rise of unhoused people in her Toronto neighbourhood.
“This book belongs to many people and some of them are here and a lot of them have died. Life expectancy on the streets is very short,” said Helwig before reading out some of the names of unhoused people who have died over the course of the events described in this book.
“Encampment is the book for anyone who has ever looked at an unhoused settlement and wondered — how does this happen in a country as wealthy as Canada, in a city as vibrant and seemingly compassionate as Toronto? Encampment is the chronicle of an unhoused community on the doorstep of St. Stephen’s in the Field Anglican Church in Kensington Market,” the jury said in a statement.
“Maggie Helwig, the church pastor, becomes a champion of the encampment in her midst and details in exquisite prose the plight of the individuals who make up this unhoused community. It’s a difficult book to put down once you start reading and impossible to forget once you finish. Helwig’s exceptional storytelling compels us to care.”
The jury was composed of Sam Hiyate, Sophie Jai, Wanda Nanibush, Don Oravec and David Silverberg.
The other four finalists, who each received a $2,000 prize, include All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari, a memoir about a search for belonging as a Canadian-born daughter of Iranian emigrants; Other Worlds by André Alexis, a story collection which follows characters during moments of profound confusion and alienation; The Knowing by Tanya Talaga, a nonfiction work that explores family history and a Indigenous retelling of the history of Canada; The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse by Vinh Nguyen, a memoir about one family’s escape from Vietnam and a father’s mysterious disappearance; and Unlike The Rest by Chika Stacey Oriuwa, a memoir which examines a young doctor’s journey through medical school and residency.
Many of the shortlisted books are available in accessible formats on the Centre for Equitable Library Access website.
Maurice Vellekoop won last year for his graphic memoir I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together.
Other past winners include Sarah Polley for Run Towards the Danger, Kim Echlin for Speak, Silence, Desmond Cole for The Skin We’re In and Dionne Brand for Theory.