The Writers’ Guild of Alberta is excited to announce the finalists for the 2022 Alberta Literary Awards, the 2022 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize, and The 2022 City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. Each year, the Alberta Literary Awards, the City of Edmonton and The City of Calgary recognize and celebrate the highest standards of literary excellence from Alberta authors.
The WGA would like to send our congratulations to those whose work is among this year’s finalists! We look forward to celebrating your creativity and hard work, and we will do all we can to spread the word about the wonderful writing you did in 2021.
Details for the upcoming Virtual Readings with the Finalists (April 20 & 21), The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize Finalists’ Readings (April 28) and the Alberta Literary Awards Gala (June 11) will be posted on our website and social media. Details for the presentation of The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize (June 15) will be available at calgary.ca/calgaryawards.
Our juries deliberated on more than 300 submissions to select the following 36 finalists in twelve categories. Finalists represent excellence in literary work written by Alberta authors and published or created in 2020-21. We encourage you to check out these fantastic titles!
The 2022 Alberta Literary Awards Finalists
R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature (Chapter Books)
(Sponsored by Under the Arch Youth Foundation at The Calgary Foundation)
- Larry Loyie (Edmonton) with Constance Brissenden (Edmonton) – Wild Waters: Inside a Voyageur’s World (Indigenous Education Press)
- Meagan Mahoney (Calgary) – Meranda and the Legend of the Lake (Owlkids Books)
- Lorna Shultz Nicholson (Edmonton) – When You Least Expect It (Red Deer Press)
James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction
(Supported by Marilyn and Bob Stallworthy)
- Lisa Martin (Edmonton) – “The Wounded Man” (The New Quarterly)
- Omar Mouallem (Edmonton) – “How a McDonald’s Knockoff Became the Immigrant Dream” (VICE Magazine)
- Julie Sedivy (Calgary) – “Defamiliarizing the Mother Tongue: On Immigration’s Impact on Learning and Losing Language” (Literary Hub)
Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story
(Supported by the Alexandra Writers’ Centre Society)
- C.J. Lavigne (Red Deer) – “Cenotaph” (Augur Magazine)
- Ben Lof (Edmonton) – “Naked States” (The Malahat Review)
- Rod Moody-Corbett (Lethbridge) – “Malady Head” (Soft Punk Magazine)
Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry
(Sponsored by Stephan V. Benediktson)
- Tyler Engström (Calgary) – Think of How Old We Could Get (Frontenac House)
- Rayanne Haines (Edmonton) – Tell the Birds your Body is Not a Gun (Frontenac House)
- Ky Perraun (Edmonton) – Miraculous Sickness (At Bay Press)
Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award
(Supported by the Haynes Family – In Memory of Dr. Sterling Haynes)
- Katherine Abbass (Beaumont) – “Inglorious Bastards”
- Ali Bryan (Calgary) – “Bad Extra”
- Jessica Waite (Calgary) – “In Defence of Grief”
Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama
- Dale Lee Kwong (Calgary) – Ai Yah! Chop Suey
- Eugene Stickland (Calgary) – Closer and Closer Apart (From the book No Harm Done, Durvile & UpRoute Books)
- David van Belle (Edmonton) – Love is Magic
Memoir Award
(Supported by Vivian Hansen)
- Ashley Bristowe (Calgary) – My Own Blood: A Memoir (Random House Canada)
- Omar Mouallem (Edmonton) – Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas (Simon & Schuster)
- Trina Moyles (Peace River) – Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest (Random House Canada)
Short Story Collection Award
- Norma Dunning (Edmonton) – Tainna: The Unseen Ones, Short Stories (Douglas & McIntyre)
- Lori Hahnel (Calgary) – Vermin (Enfield & Wizenty)
- Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike (Edmonton) – Double Wahala, Double Trouble (Griots Lounge Publishing Canada)
Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction
- Jordan Abel (Edmonton) – Nishga (Penguin Random House Canada – McClelland & Stewart)
- Omar Mouallem (Edmonton) – Praying to the West: How Muslims Shaped the Americas (Simon & Schuster)
- Julie Sedivy (Calgary) – Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self (Harvard University Press)
Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction
- Premee Mohamed (Edmonton) – The Annual Migration of Clouds (ECW Press)
- Theresa Shea (Edmonton) – The Shade Tree (Guernica Editions)
- P. J. Vernon (Calgary) Bath Haus – (Doubleday, c/o Penguin Random House Canada)
The 2022 Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize Finalists
(Sponsored by the Edmonton Arts Council and Audreys Books)
- Glen Huser – Burning the Night (NeWest Press)
- Premee Mohamed – The Annual Migration of Clouds (ECW Press)
- Trina Moyles – Lookout: Love, Solitude, and Searching for Wildfire in the Boreal Forest (Random House Canada)
The 2022 City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize Finalists
- Julie Sedivy – Memory Speaks: On Losing and Reclaiming Language and Self (Harvard University Press)
- Jaspreet Singh – My Mother, My Translator (Vehicule Press)
- Neil Surkan – Unbecoming (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
Alberta Literary Awards Funders
Sponsors for the Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize
