Dionne Brand, Wayne Johnston and Daniel Poliquin are among the 2007 nominees for Ontario's $20,000 writing prize, the Trillium Book Awards.

Organizers announced on Tuesday a short list of authors and poets vying for the 20th annual edition of the provincial literary honour.

The finalists for the English-language Trillium Book Award are:

• Anar Ali for Baby Khaki's Wings.
• Dionne Brand for Inventory.
• Bernice Eisenstein for I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors.
• Mark Frutkin for Fabrizio's Return.
• Charlotte Gray for Reluctant Genius.
• Wayne Johnston for The Custodian of Paradise.

The finalists for the French-language award are:

• Marguerite Andersen for Doucement le bonheur.
• Daniel Castillo Durante for La passion des nomades.
• Claude Forand for Ainsi parle le Saigneur.
• Daniel Poliquin for La Kermesse.
• Paul Savoie for Crac.

Each finalist receives an honorarium of $500, with the winners set to receive $20,000 (plus $2,500 to the book's publisher to help promote the title).

The English-language finalists for the Trillium Book Award for poetry are:

• Ken Babstock for Airstream Land Yacht.
• Adam Dickinson for Kingdom, Phylum.
• Anita Lahey for Out to Dry in Cape Breton.

Last year, organizers changed the frequency of its French-language poetry award in order to present it once every two years, instead of annually. 

For this year's 20th anniversary edition, organizers announced a new category recognizing children's literature written in French. The new honour will be offered every two years, alternating with the French-language poetry award.

The French-language finalists for the Trillium Book Award for children's literature are:

• Mireille Desjarlais-Heynneman for La nuit où le Soleil est parti.
• Céline Forcier for Un canard majuscule.
• Françoise Lepage for Poupeska.

As with the Trillium Awards for poetry, finalists for the new children's literature prize will each receive a $500 honorarium. Both the poetry and children's literature winners will receive $10,000 while their publishers get $2,000 to promote the titles.

Established by the Ontario government in 1987, the Trillium Book Award honours literary excellence by Ontario writers. In 1994, the prize was extended to honour francophone writers and, in 2003, to honour poets.

This year's winners will be announced at a luncheon ceremony in Toronto on June 4.

Later that evening, past Trillium recipients — including Nino Ricci, Jane Urquhart, Wayson Choy and Camilla Gibb — will be on hand to help celebrate the literary prize's 20th anniversary at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre.