News

2026 Open Season Awards Shortlists

We're pleased to announce the shortlists for our 2026 Open Season Awards!

The winner in each category will be announced on January 30.

In Poetry:

Jeremy Audet, "On Returning to Pask, Gaspésie, Decades After the Forced Relocation, to Bury What Was Left of its Grammar"
and "Tissaje (Spotted River                     Earth Held)"
Dominique Bernier-Cormier, "If All Humans Died, When Would the Last Light Go Out?"
Renato Gandia, "The Gospel of Touch"
Jennifer Manuel, "Latency"
Cassandra Myers, "QUANTUM ENTANGLEMENT FOR HONEYBEES AND OTHER YELLOW COLLISIONS"
and "SEARSVILLE RESERVOIR UNTRAUMAS ME"
Melanie Power, "To be young is to be porous, to be friends is to be lovers"
Nicholas Selig, "Second Best Time"

In Fiction:

Andrea Bishop, "Show and Tell"
Krista Eide, "Saucers"
Josh Goudie, "Lonely Planet"
Mithila Karnik, "Semblance"
Annick MacAskill, "Best"
Camille Pavlenko, "Kuzmenko Residence"
C. White, "Prince George Cat"

In Creative Nonfiction:

Emily Groot, "Hysteria"
Stephanie Harrington, "Chimera"
Jennifer Louise, "Loser Lap"
Salimeh Maghsoudlou, "The Sound, the Silence, the Baby, the Body"
Ulysses Mugavazi, "And the Land Soaked it Up"
Scott Olsen, "A Bill C-31 Divorce"
Danica Roache, "The Ebb Tide"

Thank you to contest judges Manahil Bandukwala (poetry), H. Felix Chau Bradley (fiction), and Shane Neilson (cnf). And a special thank you to all who entered the contest. Best of luck to those shortlisted!