Trinidadian / Canadian Author, Recording Star and now Taylor Prize Mentorship Programme

Student, Author and Recording Star Antonio Michael Downing Receives a new Mentorship Award.

By Stephen Weir for Caribbean Camera

Photograph: Antonio Michael Downing 

Antonio Michael Downing grew up in southern Trinidad before moving to Canada He is a musician, writer and activist based in Toronto and he has just been chosen to be part of the new RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Mentorship Program.

This is a professional development program designed to support the next generation of Canadian writers on their career journeys. It is all part of the RBC Taylor Prize Emerging Writers Award, a distinction that is given annually to a Canadian author whose work embodies the pursuit of excellence in literary non-fiction.

The Mentorship program is being made available to five Canadian non-fiction writers, who are selected in partnership with a national network of university and college writing programs. These students have been paired with the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize shortlisted authors, who will help support their career development and growth.  The RBC Taylor Prize is Canada’s most prestigious non-fiction prize and the 2018 award will be given out at the end of the month.

The Caribbean Camera

The student authors selected will be required to have an existing body of work and a non-fiction manuscript that is close to completion.  Mr. Downing is already a published author -  His 2010 debut novel, Molasses, was published to critical acclaim. His nonfiction manuscript, Buttahfly, is a memoir of his obsession for radical identity transformations and how a tragic fire forced him to invent his '"baddest, boldest self: John Orpheus".

Antonio Michael Downing  is a student at the University of Waterloo. The other four authors are: Christopher Brown;  Gena Ellett; Stephanie Harrington; and Martha Roberts.