Windsor publisher nabs pair of nods for politics prize

It’s no small feat that two of the five books to make the 2026 Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize short list are from Biblioasis’ Field Notes series of micro-books.

The short list, revealed March 18, includes On Oil by Don Gillmor and On Book Banning: Or, How the New Censorship Consensus Trivializes Art and Undermines Democracy by Ira Wells, both from the Windsor, Ont.-based publisher’s series of short books.

The other three finalists for the prize are On the Ground: My Life as a Foreign Correspondent by Brian Stewart, Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community by Maggie Helwig and Women Who Woke up the Law: Inside the Cases that Changed Women’s Rights in Canada by Karin Wells.

The $40,000 prize is named after the late Windsor-area MP and awarded to “an exceptional book of literary nonfiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian readers.” The winner will be announced April 29.

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Those looking to spruce up their living space and add some new recipes to their menu would do well to hit McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location tonight, as Manitoba influencer, photographer and flower farmer Robyn Chubey launches her first book at 7 p.m.

Published by Rock Point Books, Gather Together: Delightful Décor and Simple Recipes for Every Occasion features decorating tips, recipes and more, all organized by season to help you plan parties, dinners and the like. (For more from Chubey, she’s at @life_of_glow on Instagram, where she has more than 242,000 followers).

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

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Tracey Lindberg, a citizen of As’in’i’wa’chi Ni’yaw Nation Rocky Mountain Cree who hails from the Kelly Lake Cree Nation community in B.C., launches her latest book The Cree Word for Love: Sâkihitowin at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The author of the bestselling Birdie considers notions of love in Western and Indigenous culture, divided season by season into themes of family, ties of kinship, romantic love and connection. The book is a collaborative effort with Plains Cree artist George Littlechild.

Lindberg will be joined by former CBC host Shelagh Rogers for the launch.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

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One of the five finalists on CBC’s Canada Reads is stopping in Winnipeg as part of a cross-country series of events in conjunction with the popular annual books program.

On Sunday, March 29, Driftpile Cree Nation author Billy-Ray Belcourt, whose book A Minor Chorus is being championed by Kainai First Nation filmmaker Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers on Canada Reads (which runs April 13-16), will be at the Charleswood Library (4910 Roblin Blvd.) from 2-4 p.m. with Tailfeathers and Winnipeg Cree author Rosanna Deerchild, host of CBC’s Unreserved.

Buy on mcnallyrobinson.com

Registration for the event, dubbed Celebrating Indigenous Storytelling, is required; to book your spot see wfp.to/iaY.

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Toronto writer and scholar Randy Boyagoda visits Winnipeg on Tuesday to deliver the St. Paul’s College Hanley Memorial Lecture.

The talk is entitled Why Civil Discourse Matters: Thinking out loud together is a Catholic and catholic good. Boyagoda will present the lecture at 3 p.m. in Hanley Hall in St. Paul’s College at the University of Manitoba (70 Dysart Rd.).

Boyagoda is the author of books such as the novels Original Prin, Governor of the Northern Province and Beggar’s Feast.

Registration is required; visit wfp.to/iau to sign up.

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The Climate Fiction Prize has whittled down the number of finalists for the 2026 award from 12 to a six-book short list, and two Canadian authors are still in contention for the 10,000-pound prize (around $18,500).

Madeleine Thien’s The Book of Records and Maria Reva’s Endling are still in the running, along with Robbie Arnott’s Dusk, Kashava Guha’s The Tiger’s Share, Helen Phillips’ Hum and Susanna Kwan’s Awake in the Floating City.

The winner will be announced May 27.

winnipegfreepress.com/bensigurdson