Adamson received the $50,000 prize at a virtual ceremony on Wednesday for "Ridgerunner," published by House of Anansi Press.
The western-meets-mystery story, which was a runner-up for the Giller Prize, is a followup to Adamson's 2007 debut novel "The Outlander." London, Ont.-born nature writer Jessica Lee was awarded the $60,000 non-fiction honour for "Two Trees Make a Forest: In Search of My Family's Past Among Taiwan's Mountains and Coasts."
The memoir, published by Hamish Hamilton Canada, traces Lee's family history through the shifting landscapes of her ancestral homeland. The Writers' Trust of Canada says the Hilary Weston Prize is the only national award recognizing Canadian writers who published literary non-fiction in 2020. The RBC Taylor Prize was discontinued this year, and the Governor General's Literary Awards have been postponed.