The Writers’ Guild of Alberta announced the winners of the 2026 Alberta Literary Awards on June 5 at a gala in Edmonton.

In addition to the writing prizes, the guild awarded Caterina Edwards the Golden Pen Award for lifetime achievement. “Over the course of her distinguished career, Caterina Edwards has produced a national and internationally recognized body of work,” said the guild’s board of directors in its citation. “She was the first writer to bring Italian-Albertan stories and voices into the landscape of Alberta writing, and through all of her work, explores the complexities of personal and public history, diversity and inclusion, community and family. ”

The winners of the writing awards are:

Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction

• Graveyard Shift at the Lemonade Stand by Tim Bowling (Freehand Books)

Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction

• ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another by reuben quinn (Talonbooks)

Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature

• Takedown by Ali Bryan (DCB Young Readers/Cormorant Books)

Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry

• Beaver Hills Forever by Conor Kerr (Arsenal Pulp Press)

Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama

• Mermaid Legs by Beth Graham (Playwrights Canada Press)

Memoir Award

• The Many Names of Robert Cree by Robert Cree with Therese Greenwood (ECW Press)

Short Story Collection Award

• An Astonishment of Stars by Kirti Bhadresa (ECW Press)

Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize was announced separately in May at the 2026 Edmonton Arts Prizes.

• Stock by Jennifer Bowering Delisle (Coach House Books)

City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize will be announced at the 2026 Calgary Awards on June 17.

James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction

• “Luminaries Eat Kale” by Patti Edgar (Queen’s Quarterly)

Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story

• “Walking Jello” by Barb Howard (The University of British Columbia Magazine)

Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award (Unpublished)

• “Furniture Broken by Boys” by Leslie Greentree