Vermette lands on poetry prize short list
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Winnipeg Michif poet katherena vermette is a finalist for one of this year’s prizes from the League of Canadian Poets.
Vermette’s collection Procession, published by House of Anansi in 2025, is among the contenders for the Pat Lowther award for a book of poetry by a woman.
The winner of each of the three prizes wins $2,000, with an online reading taking place Tuesday at 7 p.m. and the winners announced Wednesday. For a list of finalists and more infomation on viewing the online reading, see poets.ca/shortlist-2026.
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Over the last 35 years, Saskatchewan-born, Winnipeg-raised author Guy Gavriel Kay has produced an impressive and lauded body of work, particularly in the world of fantasy-adjacent historical fiction.
On Wednesday, the author of 16 novels — including Tigana, The Lions of Al-Rassan and 2025’s Written on the Dark, his most recent novel — will receive an honorary doctor of letters from his alma mater, the University of Manitoba. (Kay also has a law degree from the University of Toronto.)
In his early writing career, Kay helped Christopher Tolkien edit J.R.R. Tolkien’s posthumous book The Silmarillion. Kay’s own writing has been translated into more than 30 languages.
The other recipients of this year’s honorary degrees are Barbara Bruce, Steven J. Kroft and Marcia Kran.
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Canadian cartoonists and graphic novelists are well represented in the nominations for the 2026 Eisner Awards, which celebrate the best in the above fields for the previous year.
Lee Lai’s Cannon is a finalist for the best graphic novel award; published by Drawn & Quarterly, the book is also a finalist for the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction.
Other Canadians in the running include Guy Delisle for his book Muybridge, in the category for best reality-based work; Tate Brombal for Everything Dead and Dying, in the best limited series category; Michael Walsh for Exquisite Corpses (with James Tynion IV) in the best new series category; and Mariko Tamaki for This Place Kills Me (with Nicole Goux) in the category for best publication for teens.
The winners will be announced at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con in July.
Also in Eisner Award news, a comics anthology that featured AI-generated writing based on cartoonist Fletcher Hanks’ work, which is in the public domain, has been withdrawn from the prize for which it had been nominated, according to Publishers Weekly.
Stardust the Super Wizard Anthology had been in contention for the prize for best anthology; of the contributions to the collection, only one submission of one page featured the use of generative AI.
Van Jensen, who edited the anthology, withdrew Stardust from contention, and Eisner Award administrators released a statement saying they would introduce clearer policy to avoid such issues in the future.
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McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location plays host to German-based author Elina Penner, who launches her novel Nightberries on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at an event where she’ll be joined by Andrew Unger of The Unger Review (formerly The Daily Bonnet).
Nightberries, published in English in Canada by Winnipeg’s CMU Press (and translated from German by Bradley Schmidt) is a modern, dark and psychological fairytale that follows a German Mennonite family who left Russia in the 1990s — Penner’s own family’s trajectory was similar, and her first language is Low German (Plautdietsch).
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Winnipeg author (and Free Press copy editor/book reviewer) David Jón Fuller launches his debut novel on Thursday at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
Venue 13 — published by Ravenstone, an imprint of Winnipeg’s Turnstone Press — sees a man keen on converting a dilapidated building into a venue for a summer theatre festival — but, unbeknownst to him, said building/potential venue is haunted.
Fuller will be joined at the event in conversation by fellow author (and Free Press copy editor/book reviewer) Ariel Gordon.
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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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History
Updated on Wednesday, June 3, 2026 9:51 AM CDT: Corrects reference to Mariko Tamaki
