The Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop is pleased to announce that Fiona Tinwei Lam has been named the recipient of the 2026 ACWW Community Builders Award. This award recognizes individuals and organizations whose work demonstrates a deep commitment to racial equity, inclusion, and advocacy for Asian Canadian communities.
Fiona is honoured for her remarkable literary accomplishments, as well as her generosity, courage, and dedication to community-building. As a poet, editor, educator, and literary mentor, she has made an enduring contribution to Vancouver’s literary life and to the broader Asian Canadian cultural landscape.
During the difficult years of the global pandemic, when anti-Asian racism intensified across Canada and beyond, Fiona was among the voices who spoke with compassion and moral courage. Through her writing and public advocacy, she helped name the harm while offering language that deepened understanding and empathy.
Fiona has also championed poetry as a living public art form. As Vancouver’s sixth Poet Laureate from 2022 to 2024, she expanded poetry’s reach through the imaginative and community-rooted City Poems Project, encouraging new poems and poetry projects that reflected the layered histories, ecologies, and communities of this city.
Previous winners of this award include Roy Mah, Wayson Choy, Paul Yee, Harvey Lowe, Roy Miki, Fred Wah, The Bulletin / National Association of Japanese Canadians, Joy Kogawa, Scott McIntyre, Gim Wong, Evelyn Lau, Tradewind Books, Brian Lam, Barbara Lee, Winnie L. Cheung, Larry Wong, and Bonnie Nish.
Congratulations again to Fiona Tinwei Lam on this well-deserved recognition!