A- Z of Canadian Literary Awards - winners - shortlists -authors
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Alberta Book Awards
The Alberta Literary Awards were created in 1982 by the Writers Guild of Alberta in Canada to recognize excellence in writing by Alberta authors. Entries are judged by an independent jury recruited by the WGA. Submissions are evaluated on originality, creativity and quality of writing, as well as appropriate fit within a category. Prizes of $1000 are awarded in the following categories:
* R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature
(alternates yearly between picture and chapter books)
* Georges Bugnet Award for Novel
* Wilfred Eggleston Award for Non-Fiction
* Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Fiction
* Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama
* Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry
More Details of past and present winners and shortlists
Amazon.ca First Novel Award
The Books in Canada First Novel Award is a literary award given annually to the best first novel in English published the previous year by a citizen or resident of Canada. It has been awarded since 1976.
According to Wiki , the Award has a tumultuous history. It was founded by the literary magazine Books in Canada but when money ran short the award was managed by Smithbooks and became the "Smithbooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award". When Smithbooks was acquired by Chapters Books Inc., it became the "Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award". In 1999 the magazine decided to end its affiliation with Chapters. It is now officially the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award.
More Details of past and present winners and shortlists
Arthur Ellis Crime
This year marks the 26th year for the prestigious Arthur Ellis Awards, named after the nom de travail of Canada's official hangman. Awards are presented in six categories for works in the crime genre published for the first time in the previous year by authors living in Canada, regardless of their nationality, or by Canadian writers living outside of Canada.
There is a seventh award: the Unhanged Arthur Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel, which is designed to launch the writing careers of new Canadian crime writers.
The Awards are run by the Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization for Canadian crime writers, associated professionals, and anyone else with a serious interest in Canadian crime writing. Its mission is to promote Canadian crime writing and to raise the profile of Canadian crime writers from coast to coast.
More Details of past and present winners and shortlists
Atlantic Book Awards
The Atlantic Book Awards awards recognise the work of Canadians who live and work in the nation's four Atlantic Provinces. Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island. The population of the Atlantic provinces was 2,332,535 in 2007
ATLANTIC INK Book Awards are given at the annual The Writers Festival.
The two awards were once one
Alas that is no more
Like many we are confused, bemused
And think the choice, quite poor
More Details of past and present winners and shortlists
British Columbia Book Prizes
The BC Book Prizes, established in 1985, celebrate the achievements of British Columbia writers and publishers.
The seven Prizes, plus The Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence, are presented annually at the Lieutenant Governor’s BC Book Prize Gala in April.
The Prizes are administered and awarded by members of a non-profit society who represent all facets of the publishing and writing community.
publishers note: The award committee maintain a superb web site. Of all the awards that I monitor world wide (some 200 plus) it is right-up there with the very best- so to is the quality of the shortlist and winners. A fraction of the details regarding the award are included on this page and will hopefully serve to bring the BC Awards to the attention of visitors to this and our sister sites throughout the world. Love it! KJP
More Details of past and present winners and
British Science Fiction Association
The BSFA awards are presented annually by the British Science Fiction Association, based on a vote of BSFA members and – in recent years – members of the British national science fiction convention (Eastercon).
The shortlists have now been announced for the BSFA awards for the best works of 2007, and also for a one-off award (to celebrate the BSFA’s fiftieth anniversary) for the best genre novel of 1958
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Canadian Authors Association Literary Awards
Introduced in 1975, the Canadian Authors Association (CAA) Literary Awards, continue the association’s long tradition of honouring Canadian writers who achieve excellence without sacrificing popular appeal.
"The major awards given annually by authors to authors."
Throughout their existence, these CAA Awards for Adult Literature have been designed as objective rewards for excellence. Judging is carried out by panels selected in confidence. No short lists are published. The Journal (CBC) has referred to them as "The major awards given annually by authors to authors."
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
CBC Literary Awards
The CBC Literary Awards competition is the only literary competition that celebrates original, unpublished works, in Canada’s two official languages. There are three categories—short story, poetry, and creative nonfiction—and $60,000 of prize money courtesy of the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, winning entries are published in Air Canada’s enRoute magazine and visibility is offered to the winners and their winning entries by CBC.
The CBC Literary Awards also published two anthologies, one in English and one in French, celebrating the first place winners of the joint competition between 2001 and 2006. The Mind’s Eye (published by ECW) and Un ton, une voix, un texte… (XYZ Éditeur) feature the best in new poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction in both languages, and each volume contains three new translations of works from the other. We regret the recent passing of Bob Weaver, the founder of the CBC Literary Awards English competition 30 years ago. His legacy lives on in the Awards today, and in the pages of the newly published anthologies. The Mind’s Eye and Un ton, une voix, un texte… are available at CBC shop and in bookstores across the country
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Charles Taylor Prize
The Charles Taylor Prize is presented by the Charles Taylor Foundation to the best Canadian work of literary non-fiction. It is named for Charles Taylor, a noted Canadian historian and writer.
The award has a monetary value of $25,000. The prize was inaugurated in 2000, and was presented biennially until 2004. At the 2004 awards ceremony, it was announced that the Charles Taylor Prize would become an annual award
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Commonwealth Writers Prize
The Commonwealth Writers' Prize is organised and funded by the Commonwealth Foundation. It was first awarded in 1987. The Commonwealth Foundation is an intergovernmental organisation working in the 53 countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. The aim of this book award is to encourage new Commonwealth fiction, and to ensure that works of merit reach a wider audience outside their country of origin.The Prize covers the Commonwealth regions of Africa, Europe and South Asia, The Caribbean and Canada, and South East Asia and the South Pacific. In Each of the four regions two prizes of £1,000 are awarded for the Best Book and for the Best First Book. Eight regional winners’ books are then judged by the A pan-Commonwealth panel. Authors win £10,000 for the overall Best Book and £5,000 for the Best First Book. Writers and judges come together in a final literary programme in a different Commonwealth country each year.
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Dartmouth Awards
The Dartmouth Book Awards honour Nova Scotian literature. Two prizes of $1500 each are awarded - one for fiction and one for non-fiction.
The Dartmouth Book and Writing Awards were established in 1988 by the then Mayor of Dartmouth, Dr. John P. Savage, with the financial support of corporations interested in the province's artistic life. The intent was to honour Nova Scotian fiction and non-fiction by Canadian authors. The awards are administered by a steering committee composed of representatives from the Halifax Public Libraries, the Halifax Regional Municipality and members of the community. The Dartmouth Book Award for fiction is sponsored by Jarislowsky-Fraser Ltd. and the non-fiction award is sponsored by Seamark Asset Management Ltd
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Giller Prize
One of the nations leading book award carrying a CDN$50,000 prize, an exclusive black-tie gala, and guaranteed bestseller status for the winner, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, carries weight. It is certainly up there with the US Nationals, the Pulitzer and the Book Critics as far as quality is concerned- the Canadian equivalent of the Booker in fact.
The award was founded in 1994 by Montreal real estate Sbusinessman Jack Rabinovich as a tribute to his late wife, Doris Giller. The prize goes to the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English, and is announced in November.
Beginning in 2005, the award was co-sponsored by Scotiabank and renamed the Scotiabank Giller Prize. More
Governor-General's Literary Awards
The Canada Council for the Arts funds, administers and promotes the Governor General’s Literary Awards (GG's). The value of each award is (cdn) $25,000, increased from $15,000 in celebration of the Canada Council’s 50th anniversary.
Each winner also receives a specially-crafted copy of the winning book. The publisher of each winning book received $3,000 to support promotional activities. Non-winning finalists each receive $1,000 in recognition of their selection as finalists, bringing the total value of the Awards to approximately $450,000. BMO Financial Group has been the sponsor of the Governor General’s Literary Awards since 1988More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
The Manitoba Book Awards
is an annual awards gala co-produced by the Manitoba Writers' Guild and the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers. Brave New Words is the grand finale to Manitoba Book Week, usually at the end of each April.
The awards honour the best writing and publishing talent across a diverse number of categories. The premiere prize of the gala is the McNally Robinson Book of the year award, a $5000 prize to the best English language work of fiction, poetry or non-fiction written for adults. In all, fourteen awards and over $30,000 are given to deserving Manitoba Writers every year.
Man Booker Prize
Now in its fourtieth year the Man Booker Prize aims to reward the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. The Man Booker judges are selected from the country's finest critics, writers and academics to maintain the consistent excellence of the prize. The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £50,000 and both the winner and the shortlisted authors are guaranteed a worldwide readership plus a dramatic increase in book sales. Best of Booker Award Click Here.
The winners over the years reads like a Who's Who of fine authors. They include such luminaries as Peter Carey (2001, 1989), J.M. Coetzee (1999, 1983), Arundhati Roy (1997), Michael Ondaatje 1992), Kazuo Ishiguro (1989), Kingsley Amis 1986), Thomas Kennelly (1982), Salman Rushdie (1981), Iris Murdoch (1978) and V.S. Naipul (1971), to name but a few.Your mission, should you chose to accept it, is to match authors above winning years with the winning books.
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards
The Newfoundland and Labrador Book Awards are administered by the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Literary Arts Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador under the distinguished patronage of The Honourable John C. Crosbie, PC, OC, ONL, QC, Lieutenant Governor of Newfoundland and Labrador. They are financed by corporate and private sponsors. The winner in each category receives a cash prize of $1,500 and each runner-up will receive $500.More details of past and present winners and shortlists
Nobel Prize for Literature
Awarded by the Swedish Academy since 1901 to a person who has made the greatest contribution to the field of literature, as determined by the Nobel Committee. Nominations for the prize are made by members of the Academy, members of similar academies and societies, professors of literature and language, former Nobel laureates, and presidents of author organizations.
The monetary award is a share of the interest on the endowment made by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish chemist, which is held in trust by the Nobel Foundation. Yes, the one who invented dynamite. The prize carries a financial prize of 10 million Swedish kronor, that's about £817,000. Very handy. More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
back to topPrix Aurora Awards
The Prix Aurora Awards are given out annually for the best Canadian science fiction and fantasy literary works, Art Works and Awards for Fan Activities from that year, and are awarded in both English and French. The event is organized by Canvention and the awards are given out by the Canadian SF and Fantasy Association, which began in 1980.
Award categories
Best Long-Form Work in English
Best Short-Form Work in English
Best Work in English (other)
Meilleur livre en français (Best Long-Form Work in French)
Meilleure nouvelle en français (Best Short-Form Work in French)
Meilleur ouvrage en français (autre) (Best Work in French (other))
Fan Achievement (Publication)
Fan Achievement (Organisational)
Fan Achievement (Other)
Artistic Achievement
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Quebec Writers Federation Literary Awards
The Quebec Writers' Federation (QWF) holds an annual juried competition for published books by Quebec authors in six categories:
- Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction
- Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
- A. M. Klein Prize for Poetry
- McAuslan First Book Prize
- QWF Prize for Children's & Young Adult Literature
- QWF Translation Prize (French and English, with target language alternating each
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Royal Society for Science Prizes
Set up in 1988 as the "Science Book Prizes", the Royal Society Prizes for Science Books were originally named the Rhône-Poulenc Prizes for Science Books from 1990 - 2000, and the Aventis Prizes for Science Books from 2001 - 2006.
There are two categories: The Junior Prize, which is given to the best book written for under-14s, and the General Prize, for the best book written for a more general readership. Each prize is worth £10,000 to the winning author and £1,000 to the author of each shortlisted book.
The General Prize is chosen by a panel of five judges who select around twelve longlisted and then six shortlisted books and subsequently a winner. For the Junior Prize, initially a panel of five adult judges chooses the longlist and then the shortlist of six books. The task of picking the winner is then handed over to the people who should know best - young people aged up to fourteen in groups across the UK.
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.Saskatchewan Book Awards
The Saskatchewan Book Awards were established in 1993 by the joint efforts of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild, Saskatchewan Publishers Group and Saskatchewan Library Association. Saskatchewan Book Awards Inc. was incorporated in 1994.
Their mandate is to recognize and celebrate the achievements of Saskatchewan authors and publishers and help promote their books. Awards have been added or changed according to demand and when a sponsor can be found. Leading up to the awards, short list readings help promote nominated books. The awards gala, held toward the end of November, positions winning books for the Christmas market.
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Scotiabank Giller Prize
One of the nation's leading book award carrying a CDN$50,000 prize, an exclusive black-tie gala, and guaranteed bestseller status for the winner, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, carries weight. It is certainly up there with the US Nationals, the Pulitzer and the Book Critics as far as quality is concerned- the Canadian equivalent of the Booker in fact.
The award was founded in 1994 by Montreal real estate businessman Jack Rabinovich as a tribute to his late wife, Doris Giller. The prize goes to the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English, and is announced in November.
Beginning in 2005, the award was co-sponsored by Scotiabank and renamed the Scotiabank Giller Prize
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic
The Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic is a juried award based on excellence of writing in two categories: adult and young adult. The awards are presented annually to Canadian writers with a speculative fiction novel or book-length collection of speculative fiction published any time during the previous calendar year. Named after the first novel by Phyllis Gotlieb, one of the first published authors of contemporary Canadian science fiction, the awards consist of a cash award of Cdn$1,000 and a medallion which incorporates a specially designed "Sunburst" logo. The winners receive their awards in the fall of every year.
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Toronto Book Awards
Established by Toronto City Council in 1974, The Toronto Book Awards honour authors of books of literary or artistic merit that are evocative of Toronto.
The annual awards offer $15,000 in prize money. Each finalist receives $1,000 and the winning author receives the remaining prize money.
The 2007 winner was Michael Redhill for his novel Consolation published by Doubleday Canada. Previous winners include Margaret Atwood, Kevin Bazzana, David Bezmozgis, Dionne Brand, Sarah Dearing, Robertson Davies, Timothy Findley, Joe Fiorito, Camilla Gibb, Katherine Govier, A.B. McKillop, Anne Michaels, Michael Ondaatje and Kate Taylor
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Trillium Book Awards
The Trillium Book Award is given annually by the government of the Province of Ontario and is open to books in any genre: fiction, non-fiction, drama, children's books, and poetry. Anthologies, new editions, re-issues and translations are not eligible. Three jury members per language judge the submissions, select the shortlist and the winning title. The jury is composed of writers and other members of the literary community.
Canadian citizens and landed immigrants who have lived in Ontario for at least three out of the past five years and who have been published anywhere in the world are eligible. Their publishers are invited to submit titles to the Ministry of Culture for consideration. In 1993 the award was expanded by Bob Rae's government to also include a French language category. In 2003, English and French poetry categories were added to the awards.
The award given to the author of each winning book is $20,000 and their publishers receive $2,500 for the marketing and promotion of the titles.
More details of past and present winners and shortlists.
Vancouver Book Awards
The City of Vancouver Book Award is a $2,000 prize that has been presented annually since 1989 to authors of books in any genre that demonstrate excellence and contribute to the appreciation and understanding of Vancouver’s history, unique character or the achievements of its residents.
The book may be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama written for adults or children and may deal with any aspects of the city: history, geography, current affairs, or the arts. The winning book must also exhibit excellence in content, illustration, design, and/or format.
The prize is funded by interest earned from the City’s Publishing Reserve which was established in 1977 as a permanent legacy for writers and publishers. The fund received royalties generated from Vancouver’s First Century: a photo history of Vancouver edited by City staff. The third edition of the book, renamed Vancouver: A City Album, for many years generated royalty payments for the fund.
Writers's Trust of Canada Awards
Founded by Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Graeme Gibson, David Young, and the late Margaret Laurence, the Writers' Trust of Canada was incorporated under a federal charter and registered as a national non-profit organization in 1976. A unique charitable organization, the Writers’ Trust provides a level of financial support to writers unmatched by any other non-governmental organization. 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 Trust oversees a number of literary awards. In addition to those listed below the Trust offers the Writers' Trust Award for Distinguished Contribution and Writers’ Trust Notable Author Award.
- Matt Cohen Prize - In Celebration of a Writing Life
- The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize
- The Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize
- The Vicky Metcalf Award for Children's Literature
- The Writers' Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize
- Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing
- Timothy Findley Award
