Finalists Announced for the 2025 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

The Writers’ Trust of Canada has revealed the shortlist for the 2025 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, honouring novels and short story collections that stretch the boundaries of narrative with wit, urgency, and imagination. Thanks to expanded support from the Balsillie Family Foundation, the prize has grown to a total purse of $100,000—with the winner receiving $70,000 and each finalist awarded $7,500.

Named for Writers’ Trust co-founders Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, the prize has long been a cornerstone of Canadian letters. Past winners include celebrated voices such as Emma Donoghue, Miriam Toews, Lawrence Hill, André Alexis, and most recently Sheung-King.

This year’s jury—writers Gary Barwin, Ali Bryan, and Jasmine Sealy—considered 120 works submitted by 62 publishers before arriving at five finalists whose work speaks across grief, surrealism, politics, and history.

The 2025 Finalists are:

• Tim Bowling (Graveyard Shift at the Lemonade Stand, Freehand Books)
  A haunting collection of short stories that probe mortality, memory, and transformation with gothic atmosphere and searing imagery.
• Robert McGill (Simple Creatures, Coach House Books)
  A playful and precise suite of stories that test the form’s limits, blending vulnerability, absurdity, and contemporary satire.
• Otoniya J. Okot Bitek (We, the Kindling, Alchemy by Knopf Canada)
  A poet’s novel alive with resilience, trauma, and ancestral memory, transforming testimony into urgent and luminous art.
• Maria Reva (Endling, Knopf Canada)
  A metafictional tour de force set in Ukraine, brimming with sharp humour, clear-eyed prose, and devastating insight.
• Aurora Stewart de Peña (Julius Julius, Strange Light)
  A fast-paced, surreal novel that skewers late-stage capitalism with wit, magic realism, and irreverent self-awareness.

“Fiction has the power to bridge divides, and these authors have contributed immensely to the richness and diversity of Canadian storytelling,” said David Leonard, executive director of the Writers’ Trust.

This year’s announcement also underscores a historic shift: the increase of the total purse to $100,000, cementing the Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize as one of the most significant literary awards in the country.

The winner will be announced at the Writers’ Trust Awards in Toronto on November 13, 2025, alongside other major prizes. For full jury citations and author bios, visit writerstrust.com.

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About the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

The Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize is named in honour of Writers’ Trust co-founders and literary couple Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson, who started the organization in 1976 with the help of fellow writers to ensure that the then-nascent Canadian writing scene could thrive. The Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize recognizes writers of exceptional talent for the best novel or short story collection of the year. Past winners include Emma Donoghue, Lawrence Hill, Miriam Toews, André Alexis, Gil Adamson, Katherena Vermette, Nicholas Herring, Kai Thomas, and most recently Sheung–King.

Sponsorship of the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize is part of a $3 million commitment to supporting our nation’s literature by the Balsillie Family Foundation.  

About Writers’ Trust of Canada

Writers’ Trust of Canada is a charitable organization that advances, nurtures, and celebrates Canadian writers and writing through a portfolio of programs including 11 national literary awards, financial grants, career development initiatives for emerging writers, and a writers’ residency. Writers’ Trust programming is designed to champion excellence in Canadian writing, to improve the status of writers, and to create connections between writers and readers. Canada’s writers receive more financial support from Writers’ Trust than from any other non-governmental organization in the country. Additional information is available at writerstrust.com.