Awards / The QWF Literary Awards

The Concordia University First Book Prize

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.

2026 call for submissions

Submissions to the 2026 QWF Awards are now open. The deadline to complete your submission form and pay the submission fees is June 3, 2026, 5:00 p.m. ET for the book prizes and July 8, 2026, 5:00 p.m. for the Spoken Word Prize.

Read call for submissions

Winners archive

Filter by date
All2020s 2010s 2000s 1990s

2025

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner
The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain (Random House Canada) by  Eric Andrew-Gee

shortlisted

Eyes Have Seen: From Mississippi to Montreal (Baraka Books) by  Fred Anderson
No One Knows Us There (Book*hug Press) by  Jessica Bebenek
Hope Is a Woman’s Name: My Journey as a Bedouin Palestinian Activist in Israel (Sutherland House Books) by  Amal Elsana Alh’jooj

Jury

Paul MacKay
Kaie Kellough
Gail Scott

2024

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner
Little Crosses (House of Anansi Press) by  Sabrina Reeves

shortlisted

(Un)spoken (Now or Never Publishing) by  Marjorie Silverman
Here Is Still Here (Linda Leith Publishing) by  Sivan Slapak

Jury

Mark Abley
Nicole Markotic
Tavleen Purewal

2023

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner
Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation (HarperCollins Publishers) by  Andrew Stobo Sniderman & Douglas Sanderson (Amo Binashii)

shortlisted

Halal Sex: The Intimate Lives of Muslim Women in North America (Viking Canada) by  Sheima Benembarek
The House You Were Born In (McGill-Queen's University Press) by  Tanya Standish McIntyre
End Times (Freehand Books) by  Michelle Syba

Jury

Alan Bourassa
Helen Humphreys
Molly Swain

2022

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner
the half-drowned (Metatron Press) by  Trynne Delaney

shortlisted

We Have Never Lived On Earth (University of Alberta Press) by  Kasia Van Schaik
Dream of No One But Myself (Brick Books) by  D.M. Bradford

Jury

Kess Mohammadi
Emily Raine
Hal Wake

2021

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner

Fighting for a Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism Against Indigenous Children in Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press) by  Samir Shaheen-Hussain

shortlisted

Knot Body (Metatron Press) by  Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch
Ten Thousand Crossroads: The Path As I Remember It (McGill-Queen’s University Press) by  Balfour M. Mount
We, Jane (Book*hug Press) by  Aimee Wall

Jury

Nilambri Ghai
Seyward Goodhand
Shannon Webb-Campbell

2020

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner
The Danger Model (McGill-Queen's University Press) by  Madelaine Caritas Longman

shortlisted

ZOM-FAM (Metonymy Press) by  Kama La Mackerel
Pluviophile (Nightwood Editions) by  Yusuf Saadi

Jury

Hasan Namir
Naomi Steinberg
RM Vaughan

2019

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner
nîtisânak (Metonymy Press) by  Jas M. Morgan

shortlisted

The Birds That Stay (Second Story Press) by  Ann Lambert
Seeker: A Sea Odyssey (Guernica Editions) by  Rita Pomade
We Were Like Everyone Else (Cormorant Books) by  Ken Victor

Jury

Chantel Lavoie
Maurice Mierau
John Sweet

2018

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner

Zolitude book cover
Zolitude (Biblioasis) by  Paige Cooper

shortlisted

Policing Black Lives: State Violence In Canada from Slavery to the Present (Fernwood Publishing) by  Robyn Maynard
Excitement Tax (DC Books) by  John Emil Vincent

Jury

Sky Gilbert
Maria Francesca LoDico
Gregory Younging

2017

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner

Uncertain Weights book cover
Uncertain Weights and Measures (Goose Lane Editions) by  Jocelyn Parr

shortlisted

Arabic for Beginners (Linda Leith Publishing) by  Ariela Freedman
The Golem of Hampstead and Other Stories (Penny-a-Page Press) by  J. Jacob Potashnik

Jury

Marilyn Bowering
Adrian Harewood
Alexia Moyer

2016

Sponsored by Concordia University

Winner

Small Fires (McGill-Queen's University Press) by  Kelly Norah Drukker

shortlisted

Sleeping Giants (Del Rey (New York)) by  Sylvain Neuvel
Indigenous Writes (HighWater Press (an imprint of Portage & Main Press)) by  Chelsea Vowel

Jury

Louise Bernice Halfe
Gillian Jerome
Maria Schamis Turner

Loading archives...