The Quebec Writers’ Federation announced the winners of the 2020 QWF Literary Awards in an online gala on Nov. 4. Each winner receives a $3,000 prize.

Kaie Kellough won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction for his debut collection of short fiction, Dominoes at the Crossroads (Véhicule Press/Esplanade Books). The book was also longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. In May, Kellough won the $65,000 Griffin Poetry Prize.

In Kellough’s cover profile for Q&Q’s December issue, available now, he says the book’s multiple narrative perspectives were inspired by the polyphonic tradition of the Caribbean. “I am one of those voices, from the outside, from the margins, and so in my books I want to try to do the same thing, to multiply and open up that vocal presence,” he says.

RM Vaughan, whose death in Fredericton at the age of 55 has been felt across Canada’s literary communities, was among the jurors who chose the winner of the Concordia University First Book Prize.

The full list of winning books is listed below.

Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction
Dominoes at the Crossroads, Kaie Kellough (Véhicule Press/Esplanade Books)
Jury: Douglas Babington, Peter Behrens, Amanda Leduc

Concordia University First Book Prize
The Danger Model, Madelaine Caritas Longman (McGill Queen’s University Press)
Jury: Hasan Namir, Naomi Steinberg, RM Vaughan

A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry
A Common Name for Everything, Sarah Wolfson (Green Writers Press)
Jury: Katia Grubisic, Ben Ladouceur, Hoa Nguyen

QWF Prize for Playwriting
Albumen, Mishka Lavigne (TACTUS Ottawa)
Jury: Pablo Felices-Luna, Jackie Maxwell, Djanet Sears

Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction
Possess the Air: Love, Heroism, and the Battle for the Soul of Mussolini’s Rome, Taras Grescoe (Biblioasis)
Jury: Jeffrey Bachman, Sonja Boon, Kate Sterns

QWF Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature
The Three Brothers, Marie-Louise Gay (Groundwood Books)
Jury: Alan Cumyn, Shauntay Grant, Deanna Smith

Prix de Traduction de la Fondation Cole (anglais-français)
Éclipse électrique, Benoît Laflamme (Éditions du Boréal); A translation of The Knockoff Eclipse by Melissa Bull (Anvil Press)
Jury: Charles Bender, Samuel Mercier, Chantal Ringuet