The Quebec Writers’ Federation announced the winners of the 25th QWF Literary Awards at the QWF Literary Awards Gala in Montreal on Nov. 13.

Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson’s Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation took home both the nonfiction and first book awards. Ann-Marie MacDonald won the award for fiction, and the prize for children’s and young adult literature went to Edeet Ravel for the sequel to her 2019 novel A Boy Is Not a Bird.

Each book award comes with a $3,000 prize.

Concordia University First Book Prize:
Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson, Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation (HarperCollins)

Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature:
Edeet Ravel, A Boy Is Not a Ghost (Groundwood Books)

Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction:
Andrew Stobo Sniderman & Douglas Sanderson, Valley of the Birdtail: An Indian Reserve, a White Town, and the Road to Reconciliation (HarperCollins)

Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction:
Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fayne (Knopf Canada)

A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry:
Erin Robinsong, Wet Dream (Brick Books)

Cole Foundation Prize for Translation:
Katia Grubisic, To See Out the Night (QC Fiction/Baraka Books), translation of David Clerson, Dormir sans tête (Éditions Héliotrope)

The newly named Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize was shared by: Michael BeWyrd Clarke, “Survival Mechanisms”; Caitlin Murphy, “All the Screams”; and Deb Vanslet, “Laughter in the Rain.”

The honorary 2023 QWF Judy Mappin Community Award was presented to Elise Moser for her contribution to the literary arts in Quebec.

The College Writers Award was awarded to Katherine Li of Marianopolis College for “Effloresce,” and the carte blanche Prize was awarded to H Felix Chau Bradley for the fiction “Three Disorientations” (carte blanche, Issue 45).