Joseph S. Stauffer Prizes
Kama La Mackerel (top left), Canisia Lubrin (top right), Haviah Mighty (bottom right)
Photo: Noire Mouliom (top left), Samuel Engelking (top right), Yung Yemi (bottom right)
Current Winners
Kama La Mackerel (Visual Arts)
Kama La Mackerel is a Montréal-based Mauritian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, educator, writer, community-arts facilitator and literary translator who works within and across performance, photography, installations, textiles, digital art and literature.
Kama’s work is grounded in the exploration of justice, love, healing, decoloniality, hybridity, cosmopolitanism and self- and collective empowerment. ZOM-FAM, their debut poetry collection (Metonymy Press), was named a CBC Best Book of Poetry, a Globe and Mail Best Debut Book and was a QWF Concordia University First Book Award finalist in 2020.
For more information, visit Kama La Mackerel’s website.
Canisia Lubrin (Literature)
A 2021 Windham-Campbell laureate, Canisia Lubrin is a writer, editor and teacher. Her books include the award-nominated poetry debut Voodoo Hypothesis (Wolsak & Wynn, 2017), the forthcoming Code Noir (Knopf Canada, 2023) and The Dyzgraphxst (McClelland & Stewart, 2020), listed for nine book prizes, including winner of the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize, Derek Walcott Prize, Governor General’s Award, and Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Lubrin is a poetry editor at McClelland & Stewart and completed her MFA at the University of Guelph.
Haviah Mighty (Music)
Based out of Toronto, Haviah has spent a lifetime developing her skills as a songwriter, vocalist, producer and performer, culminating in a style of profound introspection and incisive socio-political critique. Her dynamic combinations of rap, song and instrumental transition seamlessly from hip-hop to soul to afrobeats with a meticulous flow and cadence that transcend any traditional expectation of genre.
2019 saw Haviah earn breakout success with her album, 13th Floor, garnering overwhelming praise from publications such as Pitchfork and Billboard, and making her the first hip-hop artist and the first Black woman to win the Polaris Music Prize, celebrating the “best Canadian album of the year.” In 2020, the recognition spread internationally.
For more information, visit Haviah Mighty’s website.
What is this prize?
The Joseph S. Stauffer Prizes are awarded to emerging and mid-career (less than 15 years of practice) Canadian artists who exhibit strong artistic potential in music, visual arts and literature.
Prize amount
Up to three prizes of $5,000 each (one in each discipline).
How to Qualify
You do not apply for these prizes. Applicants to some grant programs are eligible and will be considered for prizes. Visit Grants | The Canada Council for the Arts to learn more about our granting programs.
Deadline(s)
Annual
Who created this prize?
These prizes are awarded to honour the memory of Joseph S. Stauffer, whose bequest enabled the Canada Council to encourage young Canadians of outstanding promise or potential.
For more information
Annual
Prize amount
Up to
$5,000
By Grant Application
We are committed to equity in all our activities, including the administration of our prizes and awards.
Accessibility
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