Former senator Donald Oliver launches literary award for young Black authors

As former senator Donald Oliver looks back on his life, he says there are many chapters that make him proud, with one highlight standing out above the rest.

“The appointment to the Senate of Canada by Brian Mulroney and things that I was able to do as a senator," said Oliver. "To help people across Canada and elsewhere. That was the one big thing.”

Oliver rose to be chairman of six senate committees and deputy speaker.

In his current phase of his life, he is also an author; Oliver published his autobiography in 2021.

He calls himself a proud Nova Scotian who is looking to set an example for others to follow.

“I’m trying all the time to encourage Black people, youth," said Oliver.

With that strategy top of mind, Oliver has launched the Young Black Voices Book Prize.

“He approached me at a book gala and he wanted, as part of his legacy, to create an award that would inspire and nurture young Black writers to have their stories told,” said Atlantic Book Awards Society President Heather MacKenzie.

Oliver wants the $3,500 prize to serve as motivation and encouragement for young Black authors.

“Who maybe felt maybe, 'I can’t get a publisher or maybe people won’t like what I’m doing or I need some help and where do I get it?’ This will encourage them around all of those things," said Oliver.

Russell Grosse from the Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia said Oliver is opening a literary door that will allow Black Nova Scotians to be able to tell stories in their own voice.

“I think he’s the living example of that," said Grosse. "It is powerful, but he is at this stage of his life that he is passing the mantle to a younger generation to do the same.”

The Young Black Voices Book Prize will be for both fiction and non-fiction in alternate years beginning with fiction in 2023.