The QWF Literary Awards

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 eight, including First Book (added in 1996), Translation (1998), Children’s and Young Adult Literature (2008), Playwriting (2018), and Spoken Word (2022). For each genre, a three-person jury is formed each year from across Canada, and the prize is $3,000.