Indie booksellers chosen to jury 2026 Giller Prize

The jury for the Giller Prize will look a little different this year — it will be devoid of authors.

Organizers of the prize announced on Jan. 12 that rather than choosing writers as jurors for the $100,000 prize, a seven-person jury will be made up of independent booksellers from provinces and territories across the country — including Manitoba.

McNally Robinson Booksellers co-owner Chris Hall is among the seven jurors representing bookstores in Toronto, Atlantic Canada, Northwest Territories and B.C.

Jurors will sift through dozens of submissions, with the long list revealed in September, the short list announced in October and the winner crowned in November. The 2025 winner was Souvankham Thammavongsa for her novel Pick a Colour.

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The Giller Prize parted ways with longtime title sponsor Scotiabank in 2025 and organizers are, according to the prize’s website, “in search of new sponsors and donors to continue its mission of championing the very best of Canadian storytelling.”

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The Wild and Wonderful Words reading series kicks off 2026 on Wednesday at Sookram’s Brewing Co. (479-B Warsaw Ave.) with a slate of writers ready to share their work.

Readings come courtesy of locals Joel Nedecky, A.W. Glen, Tiff Bartel and Matt Horseman (also a Free Press book reviewer along with late addition Kirsti MacKenzie of northern Ontario. Hosting the event, as always, will be Sheldon Birnie (also a Free Press reviewer).

Things get underway at 7 p.m.; admission is free, and the event is all ages.

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On Friday, Winnipeg author Owen Schalk will discuss Canada’s little-known role in Libya and the myth of our country as a peacekeeping nation at the launch of his new book Targeting Libya: How Canada went from building public works to bombing an oil-rich country and creating chaos for its citizens, published in October 2025 by James Lorimer & Co.

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Schalk is a writer and researcher whose previous work includes Canada in Afghanistan: A story of military, diplomatic, political and media failure 2003-2023.

The launch of Targeting Libya gets underway at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location at 7 p.m., where Schalk will be joined in conversation by Brendan Devlin.

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Prairie Fire has announced the winner of the literary journal’s annual writing prizes for 2025, which are co-presented by McNally Robinson Booksellers.

The winner in the poetry category (judged by Tolu Oloruntoba) was Nova Scotia’s Sean Howard for taken leaves, the top fiction prize (as judged by Shashi Bhat) was Halifax’s Annick MacAskill for With Friends and first place in the non-fiction contest (judged by Basma Kavanaugh) was Regina’s Ken Wilson for The Bear on the Path to Tofino.

Winners in each category receive $1,250, with another writer in each category receiving an honourable mention nod. Winnipeg’s Rowan McCandless was the sole Manitoba-based author to get a nod — she nabbed the honourable mention in the non-fiction category for It Is What It Is.

For more details, see wfp.to/inf.

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Trinidad-born Canadian author André Alexis has been named one of the three finalists for the US$20,000 Story Prize, which honours outstanding short-story collections.

Alexis’ collection Other Worlds is in the running along with Lydia Millet’s Atavists and Aysegül Savas’s Long Distance.

The winner will be announced on March 31 from a livestreamed public event. For more information see thestoryprize.org.

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Former Vancouver Writers Fest artistic director Hal Wake has died at age 73.

Wake served in the position from 2006-2017 after working at CBC Radio, including as book producer for Morningside with Peter Gzowski. He retired from the Vancouver Writers Fest in 2017, passing the torch to Leslie Hurtig.

According to a story in Quill & Quire, more than 100 authors wrote in to the fest to share stories and memories about his time there.

winnipegfreepress.com/bensigurdson