Nova Scotia writer Tammy Armstrong has been named the winner of the 2022 HarperCollins/UBC Prize for Best New Fiction for her novel Ursula.

HarperCollins Canada has acquired world rights to the book, a historical novel set in a logging camp in New Brunswick in the 1920s, and expects to publish in spring 2024. Ursula is a girl growing up in the camp with her family, which includes a bear named Bruno that has been raised as her brother.  Bruno is blamed when the camp supervisor is found dead in a ditch and is sold to an animal trader, and Ursula journeys into the forest alone to save him.

In winning the award, Armstrong, a former Fulbright scholar and graduate of the UBC School of Creative Writing, has also gained representation by CookeMcDermid.

The prize, now in its tenth year, is awarded bi-annually. It is open to students and graduates of the UBC School of Creative Writing.

Previous winners include Michelle Good for her multiple award-winning novel Five Little Indians and Jasmine Sealy for The Island of Forgetting. 

The prize will next be awarded in 2024.