Writing community rallies to relaunch book awards

A group of local authors and arts workers are behind the revival of the Manitoba Book Awards’ return.

On April 9, the group behind the scaled-back, revitalized literary awards — which had been dormant for two years — relaunched the awards website and issued a press release detailing the return of the prizes, six in all for the first year.

In 2023, a feasibility study concluded the awards, and the group administering the prizes, should be dissolved, and in August 2024 it was announced the awards would be shelved.

“The outcome of that review was that the previous model was no longer sustainable,” says author David A. Robertson, president of the new board of directors and winner of numerous Manitoba Book Awards.

“We really valued the Manitoba Book Awards. We saw what they brought for authors and illustrators and publishers — attention and acknowledgement of the incredible arts community in this province.

“The decision to step back created space to rethink what the awards could be and how we could rebuild them in a strong, sustainable way.”

Robertson and author Ariel Gordon began talking about reviving the awards, which were originally established in 1988.

“We were the only province for a while that didn’t have a book awards program. That was unacceptable — the arts in Manitoba are so strong,” Robertson says.

The first task was to establish a working group to help get the ball rolling.

“We reached out to people in the writing community, or people would reach out to us, and we were able to put together a good group of people that were really prepared to do the work and had a good vision for what we wanted the awards to be,” Robertson said.

Other local authors on the board include Jenny Heijun Wills, Chimwemwe Undi, Colleen Nelson, Seyward Goodhand and Rowan McCandless. (Robertson says board members will not be on the jury and that there will be transparency if any of them have works in contention; none of the four books he published in 2025 will be up for any awards this year.)

The 2026 Manitoba Book Awards, which Robertson calls a “soft launch,” will see six awards presented at a Sept. 19 ceremony at the Park Theatre (698 Osborne St.).

The Manitoba government pitched in to fund three of the awards, with others supported by the Winnipeg Foundation and the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, along with other organizations and private donors.

“We looked for multi-year commitments, so that we knew that anybody who signed on would be in it for at least three to five years,” Robertson said.

The first slate of prizes will include the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction, the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry/Prix Lansdowne de poésie, the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction, the prix littéraire Rue-Deschambault (for the best French book), the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book.

Robertson said there are plans to bring back other previous awards, including book of the year, as well as prizes for Indigenous authors and children’s literature.

“We want to make sure that we’re recognizing authors across different forms and genres, but that we’re not reaching beyond our capacity,” he says.

Submissions for the Manitoba Book Awards will be accepted beginning Wednesday until May 6; the short lists will be revealed Aug. 24. For eligibility criteria and submission guidelines, see manitobabookawards.ca.

winnipegfreepress.com/bensigurdson