QWF is proud to have its First Book Prize sponsored by Concordia University, which offers the only BA and MA English-language Creative Writing programs in Quebec.
2025
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain
(Random House Canada)
shortlisted
Eyes Have Seen: From Mississippi to Montreal
(Baraka Books)
No One Knows Us There
(Book*hug Press)
Hope Is a Woman’s Name: My Journey as a Bedouin Palestinian Activist in Israel
(Sutherland House Books)
Jury
Paul MacKay
Kaie Kellough
Gail Scott
2024
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
Little Crosses
(House of Anansi Press)
Jury
Mark Abley
Nicole Markotic
Tavleen Purewal
2023
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation
(HarperCollins Publishers)
shortlisted
Halal Sex: The Intimate Lives of Muslim Women in North America
(Viking Canada)
The House You Were Born In
(McGill-Queen's University Press)
End Times
(Freehand Books)
Jury
Alan Bourassa
Helen Humphreys
Molly Swain
2022
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
the half-drowned
(Metatron Press)
shortlisted
We Have Never Lived On Earth
(University of Alberta Press)
Dream of No One But Myself
(Brick Books)
Jury
Kess Mohammadi
Emily Raine
Hal Wake
2021
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
Fighting for a Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism Against Indigenous Children in Canada
(McGill-Queen’s University Press)
shortlisted
Knot Body
(Metatron Press)
Ten Thousand Crossroads: The Path As I Remember It
(McGill-Queen’s University Press)
We, Jane
(Book*hug Press)
Jury
Nilambri Ghai
Seyward Goodhand
Shannon Webb-Campbell
2020
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
The Danger Model
(McGill-Queen's University Press)
Jury
Hasan Namir
Naomi Steinberg
RM Vaughan
2019
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
nîtisânak
(Metonymy Press)
shortlisted
The Birds That Stay
(Second Story Press)
Seeker: A Sea Odyssey
(Guernica Editions)
We Were Like Everyone Else
(Cormorant Books)
Jury
Chantel Lavoie
Maurice Mierau
John Sweet
2018
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
Zolitude
(Biblioasis)
shortlisted
Policing Black Lives: State Violence In Canada from Slavery to the Present
(Fernwood Publishing)
Excitement Tax
(DC Books)
Jury
Sky Gilbert
Maria Francesca LoDico
Gregory Younging
2017
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
Uncertain Weights and Measures
(Goose Lane Editions)
shortlisted
Arabic for Beginners
(Linda Leith Publishing)
The Golem of Hampstead and Other Stories
(Penny-a-Page Press)
Jury
Marilyn Bowering
Adrian Harewood
Alexia Moyer
2016
Sponsored by Concordia UniversityWinner
Small Fires
(McGill-Queen's University Press)
shortlisted
Sleeping Giants
(Del Rey (New York))
Indigenous Writes
(HighWater Press (an imprint of Portage & Main Press))
Jury
Louise Bernice Halfe
Gillian Jerome
Maria Schamis Turner
