Woman wins award for poetry about life with daughter who has Down syndrome

A 66-year-old woman from Ottawa, Canada, has become the oldest person to receive the RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award for her poetry highlighting her experiences in caring for her daughter, who has Down syndrome.

Nancy Huggett told CBC News that she didn’t think she would be able to become a writer after her daughter, Jessie, suffered a stroke at the age of 26 in 2015. The effects of the stroke meant that Jessie would require more care from her mother than she previously had.

“That’s when the intense caregiving started,” Huggett told CBC Ottawa’s All In A Day. “[Jessie] lost all language, all movement.”

Prior to the stroke, Jessie had a more independent life. She helped found the group Propeller Dance, an Ottawa dance company providing programs to people of different abilities. Then the stroke occurred and five years later, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed Jessie and her family into isolation and disrupted their routines.

“It’s like rebuilding again,” said Huggett. “And it’s not that easy to do. Resources are not quite out there.”

The jury that selected Huggett’s work described it this way:

A clear cohesion emerges in this epic work, in the interplay of illness and healing, making and breaking, and in the delicate engagement with the religious theme implied in the title… We were struck by the work’s powerful emotional resonance and its brave exploration of a felt experience.

She told CBC News that she began getting up at five in the morning to write for two hours every day and also signed up for an online writing class. Writing became an outlet for Huggett.

“I could commit to online because if something happened [with Jessie], I just have to open the door and I’m there,” she said.

With encouragement from other writers, Huggett began introducing personal aspects of her life into her writing, including her experiences caring for Jessie.

“I’m hoping when somebody reads [my poems] they will feel seen and discover something about themselves or in their life,” she said.

She added, “There’s so many of us who are just emerging as we’re older, especially if you’re a caregiver or if your life has been consumed in different ways. Sometimes life affords the opportunity to emerge in a new way as an artist.”

The RBC PEN Canada New Voices Award is an annual award aimed at encouraging new writers of short stories, creative nonfiction, journalism, and poetry.