QWF Awards Call for Submissions: Children’s and Young Adult Literature

On November 10, 2025, QWF will award a prize of $3,000 to honour excellence in children’s and young adult literature by a Quebec English-language writer.

To accommodate the breadth of this category, QWF has divided the prize into two sub-categories, to be split at about the grade three reading level, depending on length and theme. Longer chapter books, middle-grade and young adult literature will be awarded one year. Picture books with text and beginner readers will be honoured the year following. This year, the prize will be awarded to the author of the eligible book of fiction, non-fiction or poetry in the sub-category of longer chapter books, middle-grade, and young adult literature that the jury deems to have made the most significant contribution of the year to the body of Quebec English-language children’s literature.

Picture books with text and beginner reader books published this year and next may be submitted next year for the 2026 Prize. Books deemed borderline by the publisher may be submitted in either year; QWF will determine the suitable category and, if required, will hold the submission for the following year and notify the publisher.

Publishers with eligible titles (see eligibility criteria below) must send 5 physical copies and one PDF file of the book. Please submit the PDF online via Submittable. If the PDF is not available at the time you complete your submission (i.e., the book is forthcoming), please send it to riley@qwf.org when it becomes available by the appropriate deadline date (see “Submission Deadlines,” below).

It is the responsibility of the publisher or author who is submitting the books, whether electronic or hard copies, to ensure that the submission has been received.

Each submission must be accompanied by a completed submission form (via Submittable) and a $35 non-refundable registration fee.

A publisher submitting five or more titles is eligible for a $5 discount on the submission fee. For example, for five titles, the total fee would be $150 rather than $175.

Online Payment and Submission

Submission and payment of registration fees can be made electronically via Submittable.

Eligibility Criteria

1. Books must have an ISBN, be commercially available to the public, and must have been written in English for children or young adult readers.
2. Electronic and print-on-demand books are eligible provided that they became commercially available in their final form during the eligibility period, and that they meet all of the other criteria listed here.
3. The author of the text must be alive and have a residence in Quebec at the time of submission. A person who has been living outside of Quebec continuously for the past five years will be considered ineligible. In the case of joint creation between two people (i.e., two writers, or a writer and an illustrator), at least one writer must satisfy the above residency requirement. In the case of joint creation among three people (i.e., two writers and an illustrator or one writer and two illustrators), at least two creators, including at least one writer, must satisfy the requirement.
4. The prize will be awarded to the author of the text. However, if the winning book is co-created by a writer and an illustrator who is named on the title page or otherwise given equal credit to the author of the text, or by two writers, the prize money will be divided equally between the co-creators, or, if one of the creators has died, between the living author and the deceased author’s (or illustrator’s) estate. Books with more than three co-creators (two authors and one illustrator or one author and two illustrators) are not eligible.
5. The book must be published within the eligibility period specified on the call for submissions and must be submitted by the specified deadline.
6. The book must contain narrative text, dialogue, or poetry—picture books or graphic novels without written content are not eligible.
7. The book must be an original work, written in English (translations are not eligible; retellings of traditional stories will be considered only if the text and interpretation are the original work of the present author).
8. Collections of short stories, essays, or poems are eligible as long as at least 51% of the material has not been previously published in book form. The pieces may have been published in print or electronic magazines or journals.
9. The book must be self-contained and not dependent on other media.
10. A book may be submitted to the QWF Awards only once.
11. Rewritten, expanded or otherwise altered books (traditional publication or print-on-demand) may be considered eligible only if the new version is deemed a new book by QWF.
12. Non-literary books such as textbooks, colouring books, game books, manuals, etc. are not eligible.

QWF reserves the right to make the final decision regarding the eligibility of any book.

Submission Deadlines

• Books published between August 1, 2023 and September 30, 2025 may be submitted, provided that they were not submitted for the 2023 Awards.
• Books published between August 1, 2023 and May 15, 2025 must be submitted for the June 3, 2025 deadline, along with a completed submission form and a $35 non-refundable submission fee.
• Publishers or authors with titles coming out between May 16, 2025 and September 30, 2025 must send in a completed submission form and submission fee by the June 1, 2025 deadline. PDFs of completed books must be received by August 1, 2025. If the final published book is not available by August 1, 2025, we must also receive three advanced reader copies (ARCs) by August 1. The final published books must be received by September 30, 2025, or the title will be disqualified. ARCs do not need to be sent if the final published books are received by August 1, 2025.
• In the spring of 2026, there will be a call for submissions for picture books with text and beginner readers published between August 1, 2024 and September 30, 2026, provided that they were not submitted for the 2024 Awards.
• QWF reserves the right to determine the suitable category of all submissions. Books assessed as unsuitable in one category will be held for the following year, and the publisher notified.
• Books published between August 1, 2025 and September 30, 2025 may instead be submitted for the 2027 awards.

Additional Information

Books may be submitted by publishers or authors.

Books should be sent to:
Quebec Writers’ Federation Awards
1200 Atwater Avenue, Room 3, Westmount QC, H3Z 1X4

Note: The submitter is responsible for all shipping fees, including duties and taxes. If QWF must cover these fees to receive a package, we will invoice the submitter for the total amount. Failure to pay will result in the submission being disqualified.

PDFs should be uploaded to Submittable or sent to riley@qwf.org

For cheque payments, please make cheques payable to Quebec Writers’ Federation.

For further information: (514) 244-9088 or riley@qwf.org.

A paper copy of this call for submissions is available upon request.

Submissions to the 2025 QWF Literary Awards are now closed.