Winners of 2025 QWF Literary Awards

The winners of six book awards, the Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize, the carte blanche Prize, and QWF College Writers Award were announced at the Quebec Writers’ Federation Awards Gala, on Nov. 10, in Montreal.

The QWF Literary Awards recognize the best of English-language literature in Quebec. Each winner receives $3,000, with the prize for spoken word award split equally among up to three winners.

The award winners for 2025 are:

Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction

• Madeleine Thien, The Book of Records (Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)

Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction

• Haley Mlotek, No Fault: A Memoir of Romance and Divorce (Viking/Penguin Random House Canada)

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)

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)
  Translation of La Main de la main by Laura Vazquez (Cheyne Éditeur)

Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize

• Octavie Doherty-Haigh, “The Itch”
• Romel Sylne Jr., “Math”
• Svens Telemaque, “If Haitian Blood Were Oil”

QWF College Writers Award ($1,000 and publication in carte blanche)

• Zoë Vega of Dawson College for her short story “Née Godwin.”

carte blanche Prize

• First prize ($500): Madi Haab for her poem “heart made of bees,” (Issue 51);
• Second prize ($200): Anthony Portulese for his short story “The Stars of Saint-Léonard” (Issue 52);
• Third prize ($150): Nat Kishchuk for her short story “Trulie, Toronto, and the Southwest Swale” (Issue 52).

Judy Mappin Community Award

Jan Draper was presented with the honorary award – named after the former Montreal bookseller – “for her dedication and ability to envision new inclusive literary spaces and to nurture new voices in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.” The award was announced on Oct. 29.

Shortlists for the writing and spoken word awards were announced over the course of October and early November.