The NB Book Awards -- which is free and open to the public-- will be held on Saturday evening, June 3, 2023, at Lily Lake Pavilion, Saint John (at the entrance to Rockwood Park) and emceed by Julia Wright of CBC. Guest speaker is Susanne Alexander of Goose Lane Editions. Entertainment by Brent Mason. The reception is at 6 pm and the live presentation begins at 7 pm.

The NB Book Awards are co-administered and co-sponsored by The Fiddlehead: Atlantic Canada's International Journal and the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick. For we are currently seeking a sponsors for a fifth category: books for middle grade and young people. If you are interested in facilitating a prize sponsorship or other partnership, please contact us!

Categories

Eligibility Criteria

Publication

Books published between January 1 and December 31 of the given prize year. 

Authors

The New Brunswick Book Awards are open to traditionally published and self-published authors whose primary residence is in New Brunswick and they have lived there for three of the last five years, including the award year. For example, to be eligible for the 2020 awards, an author needs to be a New Brunswick resident in 2020 and two of the previous four years. 

​Books

Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry books must meet the criteria of UNESCO's definition of a book: "a non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages, exclusive of the cover pages, published in the country and made available to the public."

Picture Books are definied as books for children that contain illustrations that are just as important as the words in telling the story. Picture books are usually 24-32 pages. 

Self-published books that meet the above criteria are also eligible. If you know someone who has self-published a book, tell them to get in touch with us! There is no entry fee: we just need two copies of the book sent to us before December 1. (For books with a publication date in December, we require galley proofs.)


2022 Submissions closed

Submissions for our 2022 season are now closed. For 2023, check our Eligibility Criteria, then send two copies of eligible books along with the 2023 Entry Form when it becomes available. We'll post here before the end of June, 2023.

New Brunswick Book Awards
c/o The Writers' Federation of NB
52 Amity Street
Moncton, NB  E1G 0S3

Queries: info@wfnb.ca

Announcing the Shortlisted Titles for the 2022 NB Book Awards

For Immediate Release

Shortlisted Titles Announced for New Brunswick Book Awards

April 11, 2023 – The Writers' Federation of New Brunswick (WFNB) and The Fiddlehead have announced the shortlisted titles for the 8th annual New Brunswick Book Awards. The winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony on Saturday, June 3, as part of WFNB’s annual WordSpring writing festival in Saint John.

The program will celebrate books published in the 2022 calendar year in the poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children’s picture books categories. The finalists are as follows:

Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction
Judge:  Leslie Greentree is an Alberta-based artist and is the author of four books. She has won CBC literary competitions for short fiction and poetry, and the Sarah Selecky 2013 Little Bird short fiction competition.

Valerie Sherrard, A Bend in the Breeze (DCB Cormorant), Miramichi

Meghan Rose Allen, The Summer the School Burned Down (Indie-published), Sackville

Lee D. Thompson, Apastoral: A Mistopia (Corona/Samizdat), Moncton

Alice Kitts Memorial Award for Excellence in Children’s Writing
Judge: Alma Fullerton is an award-winning PEI author- author/illustrator, whose books have been nominated and/or have won awards including the Governor General Finalist 2008 and many others.

Kelly Cooper, Midnight and Moon (Tundra), Belleisle Creek; illustrated Daniel Miyares

Jennifer McGrath, Pugs Cause Traffic Jams (Kids Can Press), Hillsborough; illustrated by Kathryn Durst

Masen Grasse, Trucks (Monster House Publishing); illustrated by Alexina LePage

The Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize
Judge: Weyman Chan of Calgary has written six books of poetry and was a finalist for the 2008 Governor General's Award for his second book of poetry, Noise From the Laundry.

Amber McMillan, This Is A Stickup, (Wolsak and Wynn), Fredericton

Michael Pacey, Wild Apples: A Dialogue With Thoreau (Pottersfield Press), Fredericton

Sue Sinclair, Almost Beauty: New and Selected Poems (Goose Lane Editions), Fredericton

Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Nonfiction Award
Judge: Rowan McCandless is an award-winning writer from Winnipeg whose work has appeared in various anthologies and journals. A finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award in nonfiction, Rowan is also a co-winner of the Eileen McTavish Sykes Award for Best First Book (2022). 

James Mullinger, Brit Happens* Or Living the Canadian Dream, (Goose Lane), Rothesay

Mark Anthony Jarman, Touch Anywhere to Begin (Goose Lane) Fredericton

Jon Claytor, Take the Long Way Home (Conundrum Press), Sackville

The New Brunswick Book Awards are open to traditionally published and self-published authors who have lived in the province for three of the last five years, including the award year.

The book awards program represents a partnership between the Writers’ Federation, which for more than 35 years has passionately supported the development of home-grown writers at all stages of development, and The Fiddlehead, Canada’s oldest literary magazine, which has nurtured New Brunswick's literary culture for more than 75 years.


© 2021 Writers' Federation of New Brunswick

Territorial Acknowledgement

The Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick acknowledges that the land on which we live, work and gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Mi’kmaq Peoples, and we honour the spirit of our ancestors’ Treaties of Peace and Friendship.

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