On Monday, November 10, 2025, Quebec’s English-language literary community gathered for the 27th QWF Awards Gala.
Nine winners were revealed across seven categories: first book, spoken word, children’s and young adult literature, non-fiction, poetry, translation, and fiction. Each prize included a purse of $3,000.
The winners of the QWF College Writers Award, the carte blanche Prize, and the Judy Mappin Community Award were also announced.
The winners of the 2025 QWF Literary Awards are:
- Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction: Madeleine Thien, The Book of Records (Knopf Canada)
- Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction: Haley Mlotek, No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce (Viking)
- A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry: Gillian Sze, An Orange, A Syllable (ECW Press)
- Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature: Cassandra Calin, The New Girl (Graphix / Scholastic Inc.)
- Concordia University First Book Prize: Eric Andrew-Gee, The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain (Random House Canada)
- Cole Foundation Prize for Translation: Shira Abramovich and Lénaïg Cariou, The Hand of the Hand (Ugly Duckling Presse), a translation of La Main de la main by Laura Vazquez
- Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize: Octavie Doherty-Haigh, “The Itch”; Romel Sylne Jr, “Math”; and Svens Telemaque, “If Haitian Blood Were Oil”
Read the jurors’ comments about each winner below.
2025 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction
Madeleine Thien, The Book of Records (Knopf Canada)
About The Book of Records, the jurors said:
“The novel is written delicately and in a whisper about the most urgent issues of our time.
“Thien explores a wide range of topics, diving deep in philosophical explorations of history, language, freedom and identity.
“[She] invites us … to consider the weight of love and responsibility, the nature of betrayal, and the pain of regret, delineating how such emotions are filtered through the prism of memory.
“With tenderness and insight, The Book of Records examines the frailty of human life and the tenuousness of human relationship, reminding readers that to survive is to be both vulnerable to loss and hopeful about a better and transforming world.”
Jury Members: Carmella Grey-Cosgrove, Linda Morra, William Ping
2025 Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction
Haley Mlotek, No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce (Viking)
About No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce, the jurors said:
“A beautiful powerhouse of a book that takes commonplace themes like love, marriage, and divorce and turns them […] on their head. The language is crisp and cutting.
“Mlotek shifts from her own experience to a poetic analysis of the historical, philosophical, political, and cultural nature of the ancient tradition of marriage and its new, volatile offshoot, the divorce.
“Mlotek has a superb writing style with an elevated use of rhetorical devices and metaphorical language, insightful observations, irony, a seamless integration of in-depth research, and a masterful use of structure.
“No Fault is both tender and cruel, forgiving and cut-throat. Mlotek is a scholar with a poet’s soul.”
Jury Members: Fitsum Areguy, Toula Drimonis, Claire Mulligan
2025 A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry
Gillian Sze, An Orange, A Syllable (ECW Press)
About An Orange, A Syllable, the jurors said:
“This work considers deeply the process of learning how to speak, and with each step demonstrates this is the process of learning how the world fits together.
“The poet writes with care for mundane details and the unexpected connections between them: the feel of cherry pits in the mouth, the formation of letters by lips, and the shyness of trees. These subtle images are where the richest textures of this collection can be found.
“It is a volume of poetry, yes, but it is also the journal of a mother reflecting on the learning of her own child… At the same time, it is a book of poetic essays on art history, poetry, literature, philosophy and history.”
Jury Members: Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, Carolyne Van Der Meer, Matthew James Weigel
2025 Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s & Young Adult Literature
Cassandra Calin, The New Girl (Graphix / Scholastic)
About The New Girl, the jurors said:
“The New Girl is funny and heartfelt, exploring Lia’s experiences through the lens of immigration. The narrative examines identity, adolescence, and language barriers through a blend of exposition, dialogue, and illustration. Calin’s illustration style is bright and engaging. The expressiveness of her characters’ faces and bodies bounce off the page and show the full range of middle-school emotion.
“The narrative structure and the themes explored throughout the book are high quality and well-structured, ensuring that readers will stay engrossed in the story. The New Girl is a joy to read and captures the essence of a universal experience through the story of an individual.”
Jury Members: Robert Bittner, Wayne Ng, Kennedy Rooke
2025 Concordia University First Book Prize
Eric Andrew-Gee, The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain (Random House Canada)
About The Mind Mappers: Friendship, Betrayal and the Obsessive Quest to Chart the Brain, the jurors said:
“[This] is essentially four books in one: a history of neuroscience, individual biographies of Wilder Penfield and William Cone, and a creative non-fiction history of the Montreal Neurological Institute. Thoroughly researched, robustly structured, and written with care for the period and the central actors, The Mind Mappers, as an historical work, reads with the narrative pull of a novel.
“The book foregrounds the virtues of cooperation and friendship, reflects on how these attributes can drive collaborative, professional relationships, and on how they can enable breakthroughs in medical science. The sense of drama and the tension between love and betrayal are outstanding.”
Jury Members: Paul MacKay, Kaie Kellough, Gail Scott
2025 Cole Foundation Prize for Translation
Shira Abramovich & Lénaïg Cariou, The Hand of the Hand (Ugly Duckling Presse)
Translation of La Main de la main by Laura Vazquez (Cheyne Éditeur)
About The Hand of the Hand, the jurors said:
“The simple act of including the English translation and the original French in the same printed book is incredibly fascinating…. It makes engaging with the translation so immediately available, and tactile.
“The translator’s notes really speak to the care put into this translation. I loved the discussion on translating “parfois le ciel est au clair/ la chair est au rouge”, on whether to keep the prepositional “au”, and deciding on “Sometimes the sky is in clear/ the flesh is in red”. It’s this level of attention to what the language is doing, so important especially in poetry where a word is a brushstroke as much as conveying flat or direct meaning, that makes a translation really sing.”
Jury Members: Avery Lake, Tim Niedermann, Anne-Marie Wheeler
2025 Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize
Octavie Doherty-Haigh, “The Itch”
About “The Itch,” the jurors said:
“Such a bold and serene parade of words joined to exact the dangers of eating, loving, and surviving. A true sample of a young person’s quaint empathy of self…”
Romel Sylne Jr
“Math”
About “Math,” the jurors said:
“A beautiful love poem. Simple and divine. 1 + 1 equals math, love, eternal and infinite adoration….”
Svens Telemaque, “If Haitian Blood Were Oil”
About “If Haitian Blood Were Oil,” the jurors said:
“A timely piece that starkly links together struggles by the global oppressed, commenting with clarity on the value of Black and brown lives in this world. Written as a clear call to justice, the piece challenges head on global conflict, racism, and exploitation in uncompromising, politically charged language.”
Jury Members: Joseph Dandurand, John David Hickey, El Jones
Other Prizes Awarded at the 2025 QWF Gala
QWF also bestowed the honorary 2025 Judy Mappin Community Award on Jan Draper, for her ability to envision and expand inclusive literary spaces and to nurture new voices, particularly in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.
The carte blanche Prize was awarded to Madi Haab for her poem “heart made of bees,” published in issue 51 of carte blanche. The $500 prize is awarded annually in recognition of an outstanding submission by a Quebec writer, artist, or translator to carte blanche, QWF’s online literary journal, carte blanche. The second-place prize of $200 went to Anthony Portulese for his short story “The Stars of Saint–Léonard” (Issue 52) and the third-place prize of $150 to Nat Kishchuk for her short story “Trulie, Toronto, and the Southwest Swale” (Issue 52).
Zoë Vega of Dawson College won the QWF College Writers Award for her short story “Née Godwin.” Supported by Champlain, Dawson, Heritage, John Abbott, Marianopolis, and Vanier Colleges, the award recognizes outstanding literary achievement by one student from one of the sponsoring colleges. The winner receives a cash prize of $1,000 and publication in carte blanche.
Media Kit
For winners’ photos and book covers, as well as juror comments for all finalists, visit our media kit.