Reading series welcomes Wong, Fuller, Joudrey
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The 12th edition of the Wild and Wonderful Words reading takes place Wednesday, with a stacked lineup of writers slated to share their work.
Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies
Hosted as always by local author (and Free Press reviewer) Sheldon Birnie (Where the Pavement Turns to Sand), the event will once again be held at Sookram’s Brewing Co. (479-B Warsaw Ave.) and kicks off at 7 p.m.
Reading their work will be Lindsay Wong (whose Villain Hitting for Vicious Little Nobodies was published in January), M.C. Joudrey (whose novel Marmalade Parade was published in May), David Jón Fuller (whose debut novel Venue 13 was published in June) and Richard Zaric (Hiding Scars).
Admission is free, and all ages are welcome to attend.
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The World So Wide, the debut novel by Winnipeg author (and Free Press reviewer) Zilla Jones, has won the gold prize for historical fiction in the 2025 Foreword Indies, prizes awarded from Foreword, which specializes in reviewing independently published books.
Independent books in a range of genres are submitted to Foreword, and are then judged by librarians anbd booksellers, who award gold, silver and bronze in each category.
Other Canadians who took prizes include Ben Ladouceur (gold, LGBTQ+, for I Remember Lights), Catherine Bush (silver, short fiction, for Skin) and Chyana Marie Sage (gold, autobiography and memoir, for Soft as Bones).
The complete list of winners can be seen at wfp.to/iMg.
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The Observer
Marina Endicott has won the 2026 Prairie Grindstone Prize, an award funded by an anonymous donor whose winner alternates between Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The prize, which comes with a $50,000 purse, acknowledges the writer’s collected output and contributions to an understanding of “Western Canada’s landscape, people, history, and culture.”
Endicott’s most recent novel was The Observer, published in December 2024 by Knopf Canada. At the 2024 Saskatchewan Book Awards the book won the City of Saskatoon fiction prize as well as the prize for book of the year.
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A pair of juries made up of younger readers from Toronto’s Brock Public School has chosen the winners of the 2026 Ruth and Sylvia Schwartz Children’s Book Awards, administered by the Ontario Arts Foundation with the Ontario Arts Council.
The prize recognizes books English-language Canadian children’s literature for “artistic excellence in writing and illustration.”
Chidori: A Story of One Thousand Birds, written by Jennifer Maruno and with illustrations by Miki Sato, won in the children’s picture book category.
The top prize in the middle-grade/young-adult reader category was Kate Blair’s We Bury Nothing.
Each of the winners recieves $6,000.
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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