Laurie Petrou‚ a professor and graduate director in the writing and digital media program at Toronto’s Ryerson University‚ has been named winner of the inaugural Half the World Global Literati Award. The $50‚000 (U.S.) prize‚ which recognizes excellent unpublished works of English-language fiction that feature female protagonists‚ was created by women-focused investment platform Half the World Holdings to compensate for a perceived lack of award-winning literature written from a woman’s perspective.
Petrou’s winning manuscript‚ Sister of Mine‚ is a psychological thriller about two sisters bound by secret.
Half the World Holdings representative Caroline Bowler said in a release: “The judges rewarded the taut writing of a compulsive page-turner which explores the complex relationship between two sisters with a damaging secret. … We are moved to see this award embraced by all walks of life, from all over the world. This represents a very real desire to recognize women at the center of our cultural lives.”