Laotian-Canadian poet Souvankham Thammavongsa has won the $100,000 Giller Prize for the best Canadian fiction of the year, prevailing over four other finalists with Pick a Colour, a debut novel about a boxer-turned-manicurist.

The Toronto writer, who won the Giller prize in 2020 for her debut short-story collection How to Pronounce Knife, accepted this year’s prize at a gala ceremony in Toronto on Monday.

“I never knew that I could make more money than a baseball player,” Ms. Thammavongsa joked as she began her acceptance speech. It was a reference to Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Trey Yesavage’s prorated salary of US$57,204 for his late-season heroics. Host Rick Mercer had quipped that the Giller winner would earn more than the phenom ballplayer.

“When I was a kid, I didn’t know how to become a writer,” Ms. Thammavongsa continued, nervously. “My mom and dad are not writers. I printed and bound my own books, sold them out of my school knapsack on front lawns at farmers markets and at small press fairs. Thank you to anyone who has ever bought a book that I made.”