The Quebec Writers’ Federation has announced the finalists for this year’s QWF Literary Awards.

The awards are given annually to honour the work of Quebec writers. This year, an eighth category has been added: as many as three winners will be named for the QWF Spoken Word Prize, which comes with a $1,000 prize. Winners in the other seven categories receive $3,000.

The winners will be announced at a gala in Montreal on November 14.

The finalists are:

A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry

• David Bradford, Dream of No One But Myself (Brick Books)
• Avery Lake, Horrible Dance (Brick Books)
• Prathna Lor, Emanations (Wolsak & Wynn Publishers)
• Gillian Sze, Quiet Night Think (ECW Press)

Concordia University First Book Prize

• Baharan Baniahmadi, Prophetess (Véhicule Press)
• David Bradford, Dream of No One But Myself (Brick Books)
• Trynne Delaney, the half-drowned (Metatron Press)
• Kasia Van Schaik, We Have Never Lived On Earth (University of Alberta Press)

Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature

• Matthew Forsythe, Mina (Simon & Schuster Canada)
• Marie-Louise Gay, I’m Not Sydney (Groundwood Books)
• Elise Gravel, Pink, Blue, and You (Anne Schwartz Books)
• Gillian Sze, You Are My Favorite Color (Philomel Books)

Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction

• Nora Loreto, Spin Doctors: How Media and Politicians Misdiagnosed the COVID-19 Pandemic (Fernwood Publishing)
• Christopher Neal, The Rebel Scribe: Carleton Beals and the Progressive Challenge to U.S. Policy in Latin America (Hamilton Books, Rowman & Littlefield)
• Sina Queyras, Rooms: Women, Writing, Woolf (Coach House Books)
• Marc Raboy, Looking for Alicia: The Unfinished Life of an Argentinian Rebel (House of Anansi Press)

Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction

• Anita Anand, A Convergence of Solitudes (Book*hug Press)
• Baharan Baniahmadi, Prophetess (Véhicule Press)
• Rawi Hage, Stray Dogs (Knopf Canada)
• Neil Smith, Jones (Random House Canada)

Prix de Traduction de la Fondation Cole

• Nicolas Calvé, Plus aucun enfant autochtone arraché (Lux Éditeur)
  Translation of Samir Shaheen-Hussain’s Fighting for a Hand to Hold: Confronting Medical Colonialism Against Indigenous Children (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
• Jonathan Lamy, Le premier coup de clairon pour réveiller les femmes immorales (Mémoire d’encrier)
  Translation of Rachel McCrum’s The First Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate (Mémoire d’encrier)
• Lori Saint-Martin et Paul Gagné, Fils d’un tout petit héros (Éditions Boréal)
  Translation of Mordecai Richler’s Son of a Smaller Hero (Penguin Random House Canada)

QWF Prize for Playwriting

• Alexandria Haber & Ned Cox, The Silent Woman (The White Bear Theatre)
• Arthur Holden, Beloved (The Road Theatre Company)
• Erin Shields, Beautiful Man (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Erin Shields, The Millennial Malcontent (Playwrights Canada Press)

QWF Spoken Word Prize Finalists

• Deborah Braide
• Liana Cusmano
• Lucia De Luca
• Roen Higgins
• Raïssa Killoran
• Erín Moure
• Caitlin Murphy
• Johanne Pelletier