Dave Margoshes is the recipient of the 2026 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award. (Phil Adams)

Award-winning writer Dave Margoshes has been named the winner of the 2026 Cheryl and Henry Kloppenburg Award for Literary Excellence.

The $10,000 annual prize, administered by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild, honours a Saskatchewan writer with a substantial body of literary work who has had a significant impact on writing in the province.

Margoshes is a Saskatoon-area writer who has lived in Saskatchewan for 40 years and published 21 books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and drama. His work has been lauded by awards juries, winning the Saskatchewan Book of the Year in 2007 for Bix’s Trumpet and Other Stories, the City of Regina Writing Award in 2004 and 2010, the Stephen Leacock Poetry Prize in 1996 and the Lieutenant Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by SK Arts, in 2022.

In addition to his prolific bibliography, Margoshes is also an active member of the literary community: he has served on the board of the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild three times, was the first president of the Saskatchewan Book Awards, and has also served as president of the Sage Hill Writing Experience and the vice president of the League of Canadian Poets.

In their citation, the jury noted that the “sheer breadth” of Margoshes’s writing makes him “worthy of notice.”

“As the widely-held respect of Canada’s literary community and a dozen of the most highly sought-after awards attest, [Margoshes] is undeniably worthy of this prize. His work is consistently lively, insightful and playful,” the jury wrote. “But Dave is not only meticulously dedicated to his own writing, he is equally committed to his fellow writers’ search for excellence, and he has invigorated Saskatchewan literature through his generous mentoring of writers and his energetic support for writing organizations.”

The winner of this year’s award was announced on September 24 by Cheryl Kloppenburg.