Each year, QWF shines a spotlight on the best English-language literary work to emerge from Quebec. Established in 1988 under the name “The QSPELL Awards,” the name changed to “The QWF Awards” in 1998, when QSPELL and its sister organization FEWQ (Federation of English-language Writers of Quebec) joined forces to create The Quebec Writers’ Federation. The Awards have gone from an initial offering of three prizes, for Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry, to seven, including First Book (added in 1996), Translation (1998), Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2008), and Playwriting (2018). For each genre, a three-person jury is formed each year from across Canada, and the prize is $3,000.
2024 call for
Submissions to the 2024 QWF Awards are now open until June 3, 2024 for the seven book prizes and until July 2, 2024 for the Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize. New this year, all submissions are to be completed via Submittable. Read the call for applications to see eligibility criteria and proceed with your submission.