Welcome to CanLitAwards.com. Here you will find details about winners, shortlists and news from the vibrant Canadian Literary Award scene. Links are also provided to our Literary Award sister sites in the USA, United Kingdo m, Australia and New Zealand. Check-out the Book Award Tragic blog which reports on awards as news arises. Subscribe to our news feeds above for up to minute information from Literary Award World. Enjoy and thanks for visiting. Kevin Parker- Site Publisher

October 2008 Round-up of Canadian and International Literary Awards Winners- Shortlists

International News...UK Costa Shortlists.....Winner $111,000 Dylan Thomas Prize ..John Llewellyn Rhys Shorts- UK Guardian First Book Shorts Booker Winner.. US National Shorts... Mystery Award Winners.. French Writer Wins Nobel-

Canadian Literary Award News

GG'S 2008 - It's Ricci in the Fiction & Scheier in Poetry

19th November- Fourteen authors are $25,000 better off after winning their categories in the 2008 Govenor-General's. Full Lists

Joseph Boyden wins 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize

11 th November- Novelist Joseph Boyden (left) has won the 2008 Scotiabank Giller Prize, one of the country's most prestigious literary awards. Boyden received $50,000 in prize money for his book Through Black Spruce. He thanked his mother for his win, saying that through her "selfless love and hard work" she helped guide him on his proper path. Good on ya Mum. Your boy done good..... More

It's Raining Children's Awards & It's Pouring for Elijah

7th November Toronto-Christopher Paul Curtis (right) was the big winner at the Canadian Children’s Literature Awards on Thursday night with Elijah of Buxton (Scholastic Canada), winning both the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, worth $20,000 and the Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction, worth $5,000. Clearly pleased, Curtis told the crowd that the smaller prize would mean “less bounced cheques” and that the main prize would mean “the mortgage is taken care of.” Very handy in the run-up to the festive season.

Elijah of Buxton is about an 11-year-old boy living in Buxton, Ontario, a community of runaway slaves just across the border from Detroit. The $20,000 prize is administered by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and sponsored by TD Bank Financial Group. Elijah of Buxton has also received the Coretta Scott King Book Award for best African-American youth fiction and a Newbery Honor Award

The other winners of the evening were Hugh Brewster, who claimed the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction for his At Vimy Ridge: Canada's Greatest World War I Victory (Scholastic Canada); and Frieda Wishinsky and Marie-Louise Gay, who won the $10,000 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for Please, Louise! (Groundwood Books)- Full details click on award link below:

TD Canadian | Geoffrey Bilson | Norma Fleck | Marilyn Baille

October 21st- It's The Year of the Coackroach- GG Shortlist

Rawi Hage's Cockroach has made yet another shortlist this time the epic Governor General's Literary Awards. The Big H won't have it all his own way with the well-reviewed newcomer, Rivka Galchen's (right) Atmospheric Disturbances, one of the strong challengers in the fiction category.

All-up a massive 70 authors have been shortlisted across 14 categories, 7 English and 7 French. Over 1400 books were submitted. Somebody has been busy reading so to get it down to 70 is pretty good. Full lists Adults | Children | Blog Comment

October 20th - Winner Toronto Book Award

Whoops. Few days late with the winner of the 2008 Toronto Book Award due to being swept away under a deluge of literary prizes elsewhere! Announced on 17th October, Congratulations to the winner Glen Downie, for his work of poetry Loyalty Management - Details and shortlists

October 17th- Quebec Writers's Federation Shortlist

Rawi Hage's Cockroach looks set to dominate the award season finding it's way onto yet another shortlist, this time in Quebec. His publisher, House of Anansi Press, must be highly chuffed. Hage is up against Andrew Hood, Pardon Our Monsters (Véhicule Press) and Jaspreet Singh, Chef (Véhicule Press), in the fiction category. All in all eighteen writers have been nominated across six categories. Full lists

15th October The Saskatchewan Book Awards Shortlists

All is well in the publishing industry in the Wheat Province judging by the record number of entrie for this years awards. Full details

Toronto's Gil Adamson wins 2008 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award $7,500 book prize

Toronto October 2 — Toronto author Gil Adamson has won the $7,500 Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award for her 2007 novel The Outlander.

Adamson (left) , 47, received her cheque at a ceremony last night in Toronto. The Outlander was one of six novels shortlisted for the prize, which is marking its 31st anniversary this year.

The other finalists were: David Chariandry for Soucouyant, Kyo Maclear (The Letter Opener), CS Richardson (The End of the Alphabet), Brian Tucker (Big White Knuckles) and Andrew Wedderburn (Milk Chicken Bomb more

WRITERS’ TRUST ANNOUNCES THE FIRST SHORTLISTS OF THE BOOK AWARDS SEASON: RAWI HAGE, AND MIRIAM TOEWS HEADLINE FICTION LIST

TORONTO,ON - October 1, 2008 - The first shortlists for this year’s major Canadian literary prizes have been decided by the Writers’Trust of Canada. Finalists in the categories of fiction, non-fiction, and short fiction were announced at an event in Toronto held at Ben McNally Books.

The winners of the awards, along with four other prizes, will be announced at the eighth annual Writers’Trust Awards event on November 17, 2008. Total prize money awarded that night to Canadian writers will amount to $155,000, making the event one of the richest awards nights in Canada.
Book lovers have the chance to win a set of this year’s nominated titles by visiting www.writerstrust.com.

(Photo right- Miriam Toews)

Shortlist Fiction | Shortlist Non-fiction | Shortlist Short Story

Canadian Children’s Book Centre award nominees

Oct- The Canadian Children’s Book Centre has announced the finalists for three of the four children’s book awards it administers. (The fourth, the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, was previously announced on Aug. 6.) The winners for each award will be announced at an invitation-only gala in November.

Canadian News

International Book Awards News - links to sister sites

Costa Shortlists- Game-On

19th November- One of Britain's most popular prizes, the Costa Book Award, has released it's shortlists with twenty books competing across five categories.. more

New £50,000 Warwick Prize- Complexity Personified

15th November- The Warwick Prize has launched it's inaugural longlist with the theme of 'Complexity' and the books included certainly live up to the concept.... Full list and book details | Award Tragic Blog Commentary Full List | Commentary Tragic Blog 'Warwick Prize for Writing- Relishing Complexit

Nam Le Wins the £60,000 (cdn$111,000) Dylan Thomas Prize

11th November - Swansea. A 29-year-old writer originally from Vietnam is the second winner of one of the world's biggest literary awards, the £60,000 Dylan Thomas Prize. Nam Le (left), who grew up in Australia, lives in New York, and next year apparently plans to move to the UK, beat five rivals with his debut collection of short stories The Boat. Full storyand book detail

Boyz Rule BritLit Awards 2008 OK? John Llewellyn Rhys Shortlists

3rd November- A few days after the normally politically correct Guardian (we still luv ya) issued an all-male short list for it's First Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize, which rewards the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama) by a UK or Commonwealth writer aged 35 or under, has done the same! Where have all the women gone? The list includes Aravind Adiga's Booker Winner, The White Tiger.. View list here! | Book Tragic Blog Boyz Rule BritLit Highbrow Award 2008. OK?

Guardian First Book Shortlist

London 31st October, The UK Guardian has announced an "ambitious, varied and incredibly individual" shortlist for its first book award. The shortlist comprises two non-fiction titles and three non-fiction Full list, book and author details | Award tragic Blog - Guardian First Book Award: Comparing Aardvarks with Apples?

2008 USA National Book Awards Finalists

16th 0ct Literary Award Season has arrived big-time. Yesterday the Booker winner, today the much awaited finalists of the USA's National Book Awards. Twenty candidates have been nominated acros four categories, fiction, non-fiction, poetry and young people. A distinct breath of fresh air with with the selection from this years judges. The winners will be announced at the 59th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 19. Full lists

The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga Wins 2008 Man Booker Prize

London 14th October The White Tiger, a debut novel by Aravind Adiga has won the 2008 Man Booker prize and with it the £50,000 prize. The novel is described as a ‘compelling, angry and darkly humorous’ novel about a man’s journey from Indian village life to entrepreneurial success. It was described by one reviewer as an ‘unadorned portrait’ of India seen ‘from the bottom of the heap’.

Full details | Blog: Booker Vigilantes? Where's Wally the 'Poncey' Academic Judge?

Torrent of Mystery Award Winners

0ctober 12th- It's was frenzy time for Crime/Mystery Genre Heads over the weekend in Baltimore, USA, as four major awards, The Barry, Macavity, Anthony and Shamus award winners were announced. The big winners were Laura Lippman's What the Dead Know, which took out three major awards and newcomer Tana French (raised in Ireland amongst other countries) whose, In the Woods, also took out three majors.

Full winners and short list | Blog Commentary: A Torrent of Mystery Awards

French Writer Wins 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature

PARIS — 9th October, Paris - The Swedish Academy on Thursday awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize for literature to Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio (left) , a cosmopolitan and prolific French novelist, children’s author and essayist regarded by many French readers and critics as one of the country’s greatest living writers. more

Latest International Award News

Mary Novik's Conceit Wins 2008 BC Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize

Vancouver based author Mary Novik's lush and lyrical novel, Conceit, centred on the life of the historical character Pegge Donne, daughter of the great English love poet John Donne, has won the 2008 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. More

2008 $25,000 Charles Taylor Non-Fiction Prize Winner Richard Gwyn

The Winner of the 2008 Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction is Toronto's Richard
Gwyn for his book, John A.: The Man Who Made Us: The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald, published by Random House Canada.

The four runners-up — Kevin Bazzana, David Gilmour, Lorna Goodison, and Anna Porter — each received $2,000.00.

Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award Winner and Honour Books

Chester, written and illustrated by teh ever-popular Mélanie Watt (right), published by Kids Can Press in 2007, has won the 2008 Amelie Frances Howard_Gibbon.

Mechanimals, written and illustrated by Chris Tougas (Orca Book Publishers) and M y New Shirt, illustrated by Dušan Petričić and written by Cary Fagan (Tundra Books) are the honour books.