The Writers' Trust of Canada is a non-profit organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers.
Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young and Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was registered as a non-profit organization in 1976. Through its various initiatives, the Writers' Trust celebrates and rewards the talents and achievements of Canada's novelists, short story writers, poets, biographers, and other non-fiction writers.
The organization funds and administers a number of Canadian literary awards:
Two awards formerly presented by the organization, the Marian Engel Award for female writers and the Timothy Findley Award for male writers, were discontinued in 2008 and merged into the new Engel/Findley Award.
As well, the organization funds scholarships to Humber College's School for Writers, an annual Margaret Laurence Memorial Lecture given by a noted Canadian writer, and the Woodcock Fund, a fund providing emergency financial assistance to Canadian writers, named in memory of the Canadian poet George Woodcock.