Marina Endicott (photo courtesy the Prairie Grindstone Prize).

Saskatchewan-based writer Marina Endicott has been named the winner of the 2026 Prairie Grindstone Prize.

The $50,000 annual prize, funded by an anonymous donor committee, alternates between the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. This year marks the prize’s fourth, and the second time it has been awarded to a Saskatchewan writer. The prize is awarded in acknowledgement of a writer’s body of work and “their contribution to the public’s appreciation for, and understanding of, Western Canada’s landscape, people, history, and culture.”

The jury member for the award this year were Stonehouse Publishing’s Netta Johnson, Caitilin Terfloth of Sage Hill Writing, and poet and writer Elena Bentley.

“Over the course of her prolific and expansive writing career, Marina Endicott has mentored numerous writers with generosity and sincerity,” Terfloth said in a press release. “What a joy it is to award The Prairie Grindstone Prize to a writer of such dedication to the writing community; may it allow Marina some much deserved time and space to focus on her next notable work!”

Endicott, who was born in Golden, B.C., moved to Saskatoon in 1984 to work in theatre but began writing fiction instead. Since publishing her first story in Grain Magazine, she has published six novels and written many stories, essays, and poems. She has been shortlisted for the Giller Prize, the Governor General’s Award, and CBC’s Canada Reads. Her latest novel, The Observer, won the City of Saskatoon Fiction Prize and the Book of the Year Award at the 2024 Saskatchewan Book Awards.

“The Prairie Grindstone Prize by its very name acknowledges how difficult it is to make a living as a writer, and how vital the work is,” Endicott said in a press release. “To be given a period of silence, and an investment in the writing itself: this is a true honour, and I’m grateful, energized, and inspired to get back to work.”