Filipina-Canadian wins in The Manitoba Book Awards

“Lessons in Fusion” is about embracing multiple, complex identities

By Charmaine Y. Rodriguez

Filipina-Canadian author and playwright Primrose Madayag Knazan was a co-winner in this year’s The Manitoba Book Awards.

Her book “Lessons in Fusion” was chosen as the McNally Robinson Book for Young People (Older Category) together with  The Stone Child: The Misewa Saga, Book Three by David A. Robertson.

Lessons in Fusion is all about embracing multiple, complex identities while challenging the expectations of others, Madayag Knazan had said.

 

She worked with Great Plains Publications to come up with the young-adult novel that talked about food and her sons’ experiences growing up with blended heritage since they are half Ashkenazi Jew and half Filipino.

There were three other nominees in the category but Madayag Knazan and Robertson won in one of a dozen categories in the awards ceremony.

The other nominees were The Gift of the Little People by William Dumas, illustration by Rhian Brynjolson; Treaty Words: For as Long as the Rivers Flow by Aimée Craft and The Undercover Book List by Colleen Nelson.

The book is about sixteen year old Sarah who has a successful blog creating fusion recipes. When Sarah is invited to compete on Cyber Chef, her twists on her Baba’s recipes are not enough to pique the palette of the show’s producers and she is pushed to present dishes that represent her Filipinx culture. To survive Cyber Chef and find her cultural identity, Sarah must discover why her mother turned her back on all things Filipinx, and learn the true meaning of fusion.

The Manitoba Book Awards / Les Prix du livre du Manitoba celebrates excellence in Manitoba writing, publishing, book design and illustration.

The very first award – the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award – was presented back in 1989 and now there are more than a dozen different categories recognizing Manitoba books and writers, according to its website.

Submissions were accepted in the fall (this year’s deadline is November 18th, 2022).

Juries of writers and industry professionals from across Canada consider all eligible submissions, with shortlists and recipients announced each spring. Some of the awards are unilingual (either English or French), some bilingual (French/English), and some multilingual (French/English/Indigenous languages). Many are offered annually, and a handful are biennial.

The Manitoba Book Awards / Les Prix du livre du Manitoba coalition includes The Winnipeg International Writers Festival, the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, and the Winnipeg Public Library.

Madayag Knazan writes from a distinctly Filipinx-Canadian, Jewish, and woman’s perspective and her works have been produced by the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, and Sarasvati Productions and have been featured at the International Writers Festival, CBC Radio, the Winnipeg Fringe and others. She is also a food writer for the Filipino Journal and a social media influencer.

In 2021, she won the Canadian Jewish Playwriting Competition.

Madayag Knazan’s work, “Precipice,” was chosen by the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, together with the Harold Green Jewish Theatre, Segal Centre for the Arts, The Winnipeg Jewish Theatre and Neptune Theatre, a report of kulturacollective.com said.