Manitoba Book Awards back for 2026
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After a two-year hiatus, the Manitoba Book Awards are returning in 2026.
Founded in 1988, the awards were last presented in 2023, after a feasibility study that year recommended the awards, and the governing coalition made up of Plume Winnipeg, the Association of Manitoba Book Publishers, the Winnipeg Public Library and the Manitoba Writers’ Guild, be dissolved. An August 2024 announcement made the news official.
In an April 9 press release it was announced the returning 2026 Manitoba Book Awards will be run by an independent board of arts workers and writers including board president David A. Robertson as well as Rowan McCandless, Colleen Nelson, Chimwemwe Undi, Seyward Goodhand and others.
For 2026, three of the six returning awards will be funded by the Manitoba government — the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction, the Margaret Laurence Fiction Award and the Prix Littéraire rue-Deschambault. The other three returning awards are the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book and the Lansdowne Prize for Poetry.
“The Manitoba Book Awards have always been an important piece of the literary landscape in this province,” Robertson said in the press release. “They offer not only an opportunity for the public to celebrate the rich talent here at home, but to support and promote local creators. We are excited to revive the book awards and to ensure they are sustainable and supportive for years to come.”
The short lists for the Manitoba Book Awards will be announced in August, and the awards presented Sept. 19 at the Park Theatre (698 Osborne St.). The awards website is now live at manitobabookawards.ca.
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André Alexis has won the Story Prize for the best short- fiction collection published in the U.S. — and is the first Canadian to nab the US$20,000 prize.
Alexis’ 2025 collection Other Worlds beat out Lydia Millet’s Atavists and Aysegül Savas’ Long Distance for the award, which was announced on March 31 in New York.
Other Worlds, which was also longlisted for the Giller Prize, is Alexis’ third collection of short stories, following 1994’s Despair and Other Stories of Ottawa and 2010’s The Night Piece: Collected Short Fiction.
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If you weren’t able to make it to Steinbach to see poets Patrick Friesen and Eve Joseph read from their newest work on April 10, fret not — the pair are at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location tonight at 7 p.m., where they’ll be joined in conversation by Winnipeg poet Sarah Ens.
Friesen will read from and discuss his collection Sightings, while Joseph will unpack the poems in her collection Dismantling.
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Spanish-born, Saskatoon-based novelist Yann Martel (Life of Pi) brings his latest novel Son of Nobody — his first in a decade — to Winnipeg on Tuesday, as he launches the book at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location at 7 p.m., where he’ll be joined by Free Press literary editor Ben Sigurdson (who loathes writing about himself in the third person).
Son of Nobody sees a prairie scholar piecing together a lost Greek epic poem at Oxford, with footnotes providing both context to the work as well as insight into his fraught relationship with his wife Gail and daughter Helen.
For an interview with Martel about Son of Nobody, see Monday’s Free Press.
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If kicking back with a cold brew and listening to writers read from their work sounds like a good time, the Wild & Wonderful Words reading series is for you.
This month’s instalment of the series, which takes place Wednesday at Sookram’s Brewing Co. (479-B Warsaw St.), will be hosted as always by author (and Free Press reviewer) Sheldon Birnie, and will feature Catherine Hunter, M.M. Deluca, Sean Trinder and Sarah Higgins reading selections from their writing. The readings kick off at 7 p.m. — the free event is all ages, with a multitude of beers on tap (obviously) as well as non-alcoholic options galore.
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Swampy Cree author Michael Hutchinson launches the latest book in his Mighty Muskrats middle-grade mystery series on Thursday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location, where he’ll be joined in conversation by author and CBC Radio One host Rosanna Deerchild.
The Case of the Movie Mayhem sees the four Cree cousins of the series investigate the disappearance of a truck filled with equipment and props being used by a film crew set up in Windy Lake First Nation.
winnipegfreepress.com/bensigurdson
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Ben Sigurdson
Literary editor, drinks writer
Ben Sigurdson is the Free Press‘s literary editor and drinks writer. He graduated with a master of arts degree in English from the University of Manitoba in 2005, the same year he began writing Uncorked, the weekly Free Press drinks column. He joined the Free Press full time in 2013 as a copy editor before being appointed literary editor in 2014. Read more about Ben.
In addition to providing opinions and analysis on wine and drinks, Ben oversees a team of freelance book reviewers and produces content for the arts and life section, all of which is reviewed by the Free Press’s editing team before being posted online or published in print. It’s part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
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