The Indigenous Voices Awards have a new leadership structure.

The awards, which grew out of a successful Indiegogo campaign launched in 2017 as a response to a group of Canadian media professionals who joked on Twitter about backing a prize for cultural appropriation in literature, will now be run by two pairs of co-chairs.

Cree poet and professor Billy-Ray Belcourt and Métis author Carleigh Baker will be co-chairs for this year’s published prose in English and published poetry in English awards, each of which has a $5,000 prize. Francophone scholars Marie-Eve Bradette and Sarah Henzi will be co-chairs for this year’s published prose in French and published poetry in French awards, each of which has a $5,000 prize.

The unpublished prose in English and unpublished poetry in English categories will be changed this year so that each finalist in both categories will receive a prize of $400. Longtime IVAs juror and Nisga’a poet Jordan Abel, along with the editorial staff of Yarrow magazine, will support the shortlisted authors in these categories with editorial feedback and potential publication.

The jury for next year’s prizes is comprised of writers and scholars Frances Koncan, Emily Riddle, Shelagh Rogers, Smokii Sumac, and Abel.

Former co-chairs Cree-Métis scholar Deanna Reder and settler scholar Sophie McCall will remain involved with the awards in advisory roles.

Earlier this year, the IVAs marked six years of the awards with the publication of an anthology of past winners, which includes work from Belcourt, Joshua Whitehead, Tenille K. Campbell, Tanya Tagaq, Cody Caetano, Francine Cunningham, and Jesse Thistle.

Submissions for the seventh annual IVAs are now open. Shortlists will be announced in May 2024, with the winners to be announced on June 21, 2024. Submission details are available on the IVAs website.