Canadian literary awards — BookNet Canada

Canadian literary awards

Literary prizes have a significant impact on the Canadian book industry, which means we pay close attention to who gets nominated, who wins, and how it all impacts sales.

Sales impact of literary awards

SalesData users can access our annual reports on the sales impact of major literary prizes, from the Giller to Canada Reads, in the SalesData Research Portal. If you organize a book prize and would like to track its impact on sales, get in touch at research@booknetcanada.ca to discuss custom research possibilities.

We also publish up-to-date research from these studies (and more) on the BNC Blog:

History of nominees and winners

Many publishers and organizations create catalogues of prize-nominated titles in BNC CataList. Start browsing to find their catalogues, view BookNet's catalogues for these awards and more, or get an account to build your own.

We will continue to review these lists and add other awards as time permits. Want to make a suggestion or send us a correction? Email research@booknetcanada.ca.

Scotiabank Giller Prize

2023

  • Study for Obedience, Sarah Bernstein

  • Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton

  • The Double Life of Benson Yu, Kevin Chong

  • The Islands, Dionne Irving

  • All the Colour in the World, CS Richardson

    • Shortlist announcement – October 11, 2023

    • Winner announcement – November 13, 2023

2022

  • The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr

  • Lesser-Known Monsters of the 21st Century, Kim Fu

  • Stray Dogs, Rawi Hage

  • We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies, Tsering Yangzom Lama

  • If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English, Noor Naga

    • Shortlist announcement – September 2, 2022

    • Winner announcement – November 7, 2022

2021

  • What Strange Paradise, Omar El Akkad

  • Glorious Frazzled Beings, Angélique Lalonde

  • The Son of the House, Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia

  • The Listeners, Jordan Tannahill

  • Fight Night, Miriam Toews

    • Shortlist Announcement – October 5, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – November 8, 2020

2020

  • How to Pronounce Knife, Souvankham Thammavongsa

  • Ridgerunner, Gil Adamson

  • Here the Dark, David Bergen

  • Polar Vortex, Shani Mootoo

  • The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel

    • Shortlist Announcement – October 5, 2020

    • Winner Announcement – November 9, 2020

2019

  • Reproduction, Ian Williams

  • Immigrant City, David Bezmozgis

  • Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club, Megan Gail Coles

  • The Innocents, Michael Crummey

  • Dual Citizens, Alix Ohlin

  • Lampedusa, Steven Price

    • Shortlist Announcement – Sept. 30, 2019

    • Winner Announcement – Nov. 18, 2019

Governor General's Award for Fiction

2023

  • Chrysalis, Anuja Varghese

  • A History of Burning, Janika Oza

  • In the Upper Country, Kai Thomas

  • The Sleeping Car Porter, Suzette Mayr

  • We Spread, Iain Reid

    • Shortlist Announcement – October 25, 2023

    • Winner Announcement – November 8, 2023

2022

  • Pure Colour, Sheila Heti

  • All the Quiet Places, Brian Thomas Isaac

  • Finding Edward, Sheila Murray

  • Probably Ruby, Lisa Bird-Wilson

  • The Most Precious Substance on Earth, Shashi Bhat

    • Shortlist Announcement - October 12, 2022

    • Winner Announcement – November 16, 2022

2021

  • Tainna, Dr. Norma Dunning

  • Fictional Father, Joe Ollmann

  • Home Waltz, G.A. Grisenthwaite

  • Second Place, Rachel Cusk

  • You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked., Sheung-King

    • Shortlist Announcement – Oct. 14, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – Nov. 17, 2021

2020

  • Five Little Indians, Michelle Good

  • Butter Honey Pig Bread, Francesca Ekwuyasi

  • Indians on Vacation, Thomas King

  • Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

  • The Baudelaire Fractal, Lisa Robertson

    • Shortlist Announcement – May 4, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – June 1, 2021

2019

  • Five Wives, Joan Thomas

  • Late Breaking, K.D. Miller

  • The Innocents, Michael Crummey

  • The Student, Cary Fagan

  • Eye, Marianne Micros

    • Shortlist Announcement – Oct. 2, 2019

    • Winner Announcement – Oct. 29, 2019

Governor General's Award for Non-Fiction

2023

  • Unearthing, Kyo Maclear

  • Gendered Islamophobia: My Journey With a Scar(f), Monia Mazigh

  • Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery, Harrison Mooney

  • Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist, Holly Hogan

  • Unbroken, Angela Sterritt

    • Shortlist Announcement – October 25, 2023

    • Winner Announcement – November 8, 2023

2022

  • Aki-wayn-zih, Eli Baxter

  • All the Frequent Troubles of Our Days, Rebecca Donner

  • Generation Dread, Britt Wray

  • Persephoneʼs Children, Rowan McCandless

  • Rehearsals for Living, Robyn Maynard and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

    • Shortlist Announcement – October 12, 2022

    • Winner Announcement – November 16, 2022

2021

  • Alfabet/Alphabet, Sadiqa de Meijer

  • Care Of, Ivan Coyote

  • Revery, Jenna Butler

  • The Day the World Stops Shopping, J.B. Mackinnon

  • What I Remember, What I Know, Larry Audlaluk

    • Shortlist Announcement – Oct. 14, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – Nov. 17, 2021

2020

  • This Red Line Goes Straight to Your Heart: A Memoir in Halves, Madhur Anand

  • A History of My Brief Body, Billy-Ray Belcourt

  • Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space, Amanda Leduc

  • Rebent Sinner, Ivan Coyote

  • Shame on Me: An Anatomy of Race and Belonging, Tessa McWatt

    • Shortlist Announcement – May 4, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – June 1, 2021

2019

  • To the River: Losing My Brother, Don Gillmor

  • City of Omens: A Search for the Missing Women of the Borderlands, Dan Werb

  • Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times, Alan Walker

  • Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father, Brian Harvey

  • Tiny Lights for Travellers, Naomi K. Lewis

    • Shortlist Announcement – Oct. 2, 2019

    • Winner Announcement – Oct. 29, 2019

Atwood Gibson Writers' Trust Fiction Prize 

2023

  • In The Upper Country, Kai Thomas

  • Learned By Heart, Emma Donoghue

  • The Berry Pickers, Amanda Peters

  • A Grandmother Begins the Story, Michelle Porter

  • The Book of Rain, Thomas Wharton

    • Shortlist announcement – September 27, 2023

    • Winner announcement – November 21, 2023

2022

  • Some Hellish, Nicholas Herring

  • Manam, Rima Elkouri

  • Querelle of Roberval, Kevin Lambert

  • Ezra’s Ghosts, Darcy Tamayose

  • Her First Palestinian, Saeed Teebi

    • Shortlist Announcement – Sep 14, 2022

    • Winner Announcement – November 2, 2022

2021

  • The Strangers, Katherena Vermette

  • Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, Rivka Galchen

  • We Want What We Want, Alix Ohlin

  • Fight Night, Miriam Toews

  • August into Winter, Guy Vanderhaeghe

    • Shortlist Announcement – Sep 28, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – November 3, 2021

2020

  • Ridgerunner, Gil Adamson

  • The Beguiling, Zsuzsi Gartner

  • Five Little Indians, Michelle Good

  • Indians on Vacation, Thomas King

  • Good Citizens Need Not Fear, Maria Reva

    • Shortlist Announcement – October 7, 2020

    • Winner Announcement – November 18, 2020

2019

  • Days by Moonlight, André Alexis

  • Season of Fury and Wonder, Sharon Butala

  • The Innocents, Michael Crummey

  • Shut Up You're Pretty, Téa Mutonji

  • Dual Citizens, Alix Ohlin

    • Shortlist Announcement – Sept. 24, 2019

    • Winner Announcement – Nov. 5, 2019

Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction 

2023

  • Ordinary Notes, Christina Sharpe

  • My Road from Damascus: A Memoir, Jamal Saeed

  • Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls, Angela Sterritt

  • Ordinary Wonder Tales: Essays, Emily Urquhart

  • Fire Weather: The Making of a Beast, John Vaillant

    • Shortlist announcement – September 20, 2023

    • Winner announcement – November 21, 2023

2022

  • The Invisible Siege: The Rise of Coronaviruses and the Search for a Cure, Dan Werb

  • The Petroleum Papers: Inside the Far-Right Conspiracy to Cover Up Climate Change, Geoff Dembicki

  • Nothing Will Be Different: A Memoir, Tara McGowan-Ross

  • The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging, Debra Thompson

  • Making Love with the Land, Joshua Whitehead

    • Shortlist Announcement – September 21, 2022

    • Winner Announcement – November 2, 2022

2021

  • Permanent Astonishment, Tomson Highway

  • NISHGA, Jordan Abel

  • On Foot to Canterbury, Ken Haigh

  • Peyakow, Darrel J. McLeod

  • Disorientation, Ian Williams

    • Shortlist Announcement – September 15, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – November 3, 2021

2020

  • Two Trees Make a Forest, Jessica J. Lee

  • Through the Garden, Lorna Crozier

  • Reaching Mithymna, Steven Heighton

  • Shame on Me, Tessa McWatt

  • The Way Home, David A. Neel

    • Shortlist Announcement – September 30, 2020

    • Winner Announcement – November 18, 2020

2019

  • Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related.: A Memoir, Jenny Heijun Wills

  • A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, Alicia Elliott

  • Hello I Want to Die Please Fix Me: Depression in the First Person, Anna Mehler Paperny

  • All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward, Tanya Talaga

  • The Art of Leaving: A Memoir, Ayelet Tsabari

    • Shortlist Announcement – Sept. 17, 2019

    • Winner Announcement – Nov. 5, 2019

Canada Reads

2023

  • Ducks, Kate Beaton

  • Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel

  • Hotline, Dimitri Nasrallah

  • Greenwood, Michael Christie

  • Mexican Gothic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia

    • Shortlist Announcement – January 25, 2023

    • Winner Announcement – March 30, 2023

2022

  • Five Little Indians, Michelle Good

  • Scarborough, Catherine Hernandez

  • Washington Black, Esi Edugyan

  • What Strange Paradise, Omar El Akkad

  • Life In the City of Dirty Water, Clayton Thomas-Müller

    • Shortlist Announcement – Jan. 26, 2022

    • Winner Announcement – March 31, 2022

2021

  • Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead

  • Butter Honey Pig Bread, Francesca Ekwuyasi

  • Hench, Natalie Zina Walschots

  • The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk

  • Two Trees Make a Forest, Jessica J. Lee

    • Shortlist Announcement – Jan. 14, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – March 11, 2021

2020

  • We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir, Samra Habib

  • Son of a Trickster, Eden Robinson

  • Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club, Megan Gail Coles

  • From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way, Jesse Thistle

  • Radicalized: Four Tales of Our Present Moment, Cory Doctorow

    • Shortlist Announcement – Jan. 22, 2020

    • Winner Announcement – July 23, 2020

2019

  • By Chance Alone: A Remarkable True Story Of Courage And Survival At Auschwitz, Max Eisen

  • Homes: A Refugee Story, Abu Bakr al Rabeeah with Winnie Yeung

  • Suzanne, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, translated by Rhonda Mullins

  • Brother, David Chariandy

  • The Woo-Woo: How I Survived Ice Hockey, Drug Raids, Demons, and My Crazy Chinese Family, Lindsay Wong

    • Longlist Announcement – Jan. 31, 2019

    • Winner Announcement – March 28, 2019

First Nation Communities Read

2023-2024

Adult/YA Titles

  • My Indian Summer, Joseph Kakwinokanasum

  • A Blanket of Butterflies, Richard Van Camp

  • Opimotewina wina kapagamawat Witigowa / Journeys of The One to Strike the Wetigo, Ken Carriere

  • Nii Ndahlohke, Mary Jane Logan McCallum

  • Silence to Strength, Christine Smith

 

Children's Titles

  • Phoenix Gets Greater (English Version), Marty Wilson-Trudeau

  • Phoenix Gets Greater (Anishinaabemowin/English), Marty Wilson-Trudeau

  • Dancing With Our Ancestors, Sara Florence Davidson

  • I Can See You, Rosemarie Avrana Meyok

  • Runs with the Stars (English Version), Darcy Whitecrow

  • Runs with the Stars (Anishinaabemowin/English), Darcy Whitecrow

  • The Day I Became Number 54, Lorre Gallant

    • Shortlist Announcement - September 18, 2023

    • Winner Announcement - October 2, 2023

2022-2023

Adult/YA Titles

  • Indigenomics: Taking a Seat at the Economic Table, Carol Anne Hilton

  • Go Down Odawa Way, Daniel Lockhart

  • The Strangers, katherena vermette

  • Christi Belcourt, Sherry Farrell Racette

  • Aggie & Mudgy, Wendy Proverbs

  • Permanent Astonishment, Tomson Highway

 

Children’s Titles

  • We Dream Medicine Dreams, Lisa Boivin

  • Little Bear in Foster Care (English Version), S.P. Joseph Lyons

  • Little Bear in Foster Care (Anishinaabemowin/English), S.P. Joseph Lyons

  • Buffalo Wild!, Deidre Havrelock

  • This Is What I've Been Told, Juliana Armstrong

  • The Dancing Trees, Masiana Kelly

  • The Wolf Mother, Hetxw’ms Gyetxw (Brett D. Huson)

    • Shortlist Announcement - September 27, 2022

    • Winner Announcement - October 11, 2022

2021-2022

The PMC Indigenous Literature Award - Children’s Category

  • It’s a Mitig!, Bridget George

  • When We Are Kind, Monique Gray Smith, illus. by Nicole Neidhardt

  • Swift Fox All Along, Rebecca Thomas

  • Kits, Cubs, and Calves: An Arctic Summer, Suzie Napayok-Short

  • I Am Loved, Mary and Kevin Qamaniq-Mason

  • How I Survived: Four Nights on the Ice, Serapio Ittusardjuat

  • Siha Tooskin Knows the Strength of His Hair, Charlene and Wilson Bearhead

  • Raven Squawk, Orca Squeak, Robert Budd, illus. by Roy Henry Vickers

    • Shortlist announcement – Sep. 16, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – Sep. 23, 2021

PMC Indigenous Literature Award - Young Adult/Adult Category

  • Orange Shirt Day, Phyllis Webstad and Joan Sorley

  • Ghost Lake, Nathan Adler

  • Genocidal Love: A Life after Residential School, Bevann Fox

  • Five Little Indians, Michelle Good

  • Black Water, David A. Robertson

    • Shortlist announcement – Sep. 16, 2021

    • Winner Announcement – Sep. 23, 2021

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