The Quebec Writers’ Federation’s annual literary awards, recognizing the best English-language works published by Quebec writers, were presented at a gala in Montreal on Tuesday night. The evening also served to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the federation.

Sponsor BMO Financial Group awarded $2,000 to each of the following winning writers:

• Saleema Nawaz, Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction for Bone and Bread (House of Anansi Press)
• Adam Leith Gollner, Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction for The Book of Immortality (Doubleday Canada)
• Andrew Szymanski, Concordia University First Book Prize for The Barista and I (Insomniac Press)
• Ken Howe, A.M. Klein Prize for The Civic-Mindedness of Trees (Wolsak and Wynn)
• Donald Winkler, Cole Foundation Prize for Translation for The Major Verbs (Véhicule Press)
• Paul Blackwell, QWF Prize for Children’s and YA Literature for Undercurrent (Doubleday Canada)

Winners of the 2013 Quebec Writing Competition were also revealed. The first-place prize of $1,500 was awarded to Steven Manners for his short-story “Agnosis,” and Cora Sire received the second-place prize of $1,000 for “Corporate Citizen.” Both stories will be published in Maisonneuve magazine and read in instalments on CBC Radio One’s Cinq à Six. Véhicule Press will also publish a collection of all finalists’ stories.

Finally, a $350 prize honouring an outstanding submission to literary journal carte blanche was given to Juliet Waters for her essay “Bluefooted.” The runners-up were Lindsay Foran for her story “Finding Snow in Wyoming” and Caitlin Stall Paquet for her translation of Nicholas Chalifour’s “Death in the Midden.”