For its tenth annual awards, the New Brunswick Book Awards is adding a new category, bringing the number of literary prizes in the programme to five.

The new Books for Young Readers Award, sponsored by J.D. Irving Ltd., will honour excellence in middle grade and young adult fiction and nonfiction books. 

The new prize will be awarded along with the longstanding Alice Kitts Memorial Award for picture books, Mrs. Dunster’s Fiction Prize, the WFNB Nonfiction Award and the Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize.

The awards are administered by the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick (WFNB), which will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2025. Each award, including the Books for Young Readers Award, carries a $500 prize.

Deadline submissions for books published in 2024 is December 1. Shortlists will be announced in the spring and the live awards will take place in Fredericton on Saturday, May 31, 2025, as part of WFNB’s annual writing festival, WordSpring.

New Brunswick Book Awards also announced its judges: A.N. Sage for the Books for Young Readers Award; Michelle Butler Hallett for Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction; Margo Wheaton for the Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize; Sarah Butland for the Alice Kitts Memorial Award for Excellence in Children’s Writing; and Mark Abley for the Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Nonfiction Award.