The Quebec Writers’ Federation has announced the finalists for the 2024 QWF Literary Awards.

The QWF Literary Awards honour the best of English-language literature in Quebec. The winners in eight categories – poetry, fiction, non-fiction, first book, children’s and young adult literature, translation, playwriting, and spoken word – will be announced on Tuesday, Nov. 12 at a gala in Montreal, hosted by comedian, author, and host of CBC’s Canada Reads Ali Hassan.

Each book award comes with a prize of $3,000. Up to three winners ($1,000 each) will be announced for the Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize.

The finalists are:

A.M. Klein Prize for Poetry

• D.M. Bradford, Bottom Rail on Top (Brick Books)
• Mary Dean Lee, Tidal (Pine Row Press)
• Jay Ritchie, Listening in Many Publics (Invisible Publishing)
• Derek Webster, National Animal (Signal Editions/Véhicule Press)

Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction

• Susan Doherty, Monday Rent Boy (Random House Canada)
• Irena Karafilly, Arrested Song (Legend Press)
• Heather O’Neill, The Capital of Dreams (HarperCollins Publishers)
• Sabrina Reeves, Little Crosses (House of Anansi Press)
• Jacob Wren, Dry Your Tears to Perfect Your Aim (Book*hug Press)

Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-Fiction

• Judith Adamson, Ghost Stories: On Writing Biography (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
• Taras Grescoe, The Lost Supper: Searching for the Future of Food in the Flavors of the Past (Greystone Books)
• Gail Scott, Furniture Music (Wave Books)
• Don Weekes, Picturing the Game: An Illustrated Story of Hockey (McGill-Queen’s University Press)

Concordia University First Book Prize

• Sabrina Reeves, Little Crosses (House of Anansi Press)
• Marjorie Silverman, (Un)spoken (Now or Never Publishing)
• Sivan Slapak, Here Is Still Here (Linda Leith Publishing)

Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature

• Marie-Louise Gay, Hopscotch (Groundwood Books)
• Marie-Louise Gay, Walking Trees (Groundwood Books)
• Etua Snowball, The Wolf Pup (Inhabit Media)
• Yayo, SOS Water (Tradewind Books)

Prix de traduction de la Fondation Cole

• Paul Gagné, Fayne: L’histoire fantastique de C. Bell (Flammarion Québec)
  Translation of Ann-Marie MacDonald, Fayne (Knopf Canada)
• Émilie Laramée, Les lignes invisibles (VLB Éditeur)
  Translation of Su J. Sokol, Cycling to Asylum (Deux Voiliers Publishing)
• Luba Markovskaia, Peler les ramboutans (L’Hexagone)
  Translation of Gillian Sze, Peeling Rambutan (Gaspereau Press)
• Stéphane Martelly, Équateur magnétique (Triptyque)
  Translation of Kaie Kellough, Magnetic Equator (McClelland & Stewart)
• Sophie Voillot, Te souviens-tu de ta naissance? (Alto)
  Translation of Sean Michaels, Do You Remember Being Born? (Random House Canada)

QWF Prize for Playwriting

• Leanna Brodie & Jovanni Sy, Salesman in China (Stratford Festival)
• Jessica B. Hill, The Dark Lady (Scirocco Drama / J. Gordon Shillingford)
• Mishka Lavigne, Shorelines (Playwrights Canada Press)
• Julie Tamiko Manning, Mizushōbai (The Water Trade) (Tableau D’Hôte Theatre)
• Rachel Mutombo, Vierge (Factory Theatre)

Ian Ferrier Spoken Word Prize

• Fortner Anderson, excerpts from “Reiterations”
• Simon Brown, “Please Don’t Tell Me”
• Moe Clark, “committing a dream / pâwakan Palestine”
• Roger Sinha, “Hater’s n Baiters: The Culture Collision”
• Lucia De Luca, “Congratulations”
• Mac van den Hoeven, “Memory Justice”
• Emilia Malpica-Iruegas, “twenty-one”