Writers’ Trust announces fiction short list, increases prize pot

Canadian novelist and poet Tim Bowling is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Jacqueline Baker (Mandatory Credit)

TORONTO — The Writers’ Trust of Canada is deepening the purse for its fiction prize, increasing it to $100,000.

The organization says the winner of the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize would receive $70,000, up from $60,000, while the runners-up will receive $7,500 instead of $5,000.

The Writers’ Trust announced the change on Wednesday as it released this year’s short list for the prize, which is named for co-founders Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson and sponsored by the Balsillie Family Foundation.

This year’s finalists include the short story collections “Graveyard Shift at the Lemonade Stand” by Tim Bowling and “Simple Creatures” by Robert McGill.

The novels in contention for the prize are “We, the Kindling” by Otoniya J. Okot Bitek, “Endling” by Maria Reva and “Julius Julius” by Aurora Stewart de Peña.

The prize will be handed out at the annual Writers’ Trust Awards on Nov. 13.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2025.

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press