literary award
A literary award or literary prize is an award presented in recognition of a particularly lauded Literature, literary piece or body of work. It is normally presented to an author. Organizations
Most literary awards come with a corresponding award c ...
, presented annually by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council to a work judged to be the best book, regardless of genre, published by a writer from
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the populatio ...
cbc.ca
CBC.ca is the English-language online service of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It was introduced in 1996. Under its previous names, the CBC's online service first went live in 1993.
The Web-based service of the CBC is one of Canada's m ...
, March 27, 2008.
The award was created by journalist and historian
Richard Gwyn
Richard Gwyn (ca. 1537 – 15 October 1584), also known by his anglicized name, Richard White, was a Welsh teacher at illegal and underground schools and a bard who wrote both Christian and satirical poetry in the Welsh language. A Roman C ...
in memory of his wife Sandra following her death in 2000. Winterset was the name of Sandra Gwyn's childhood home in St. John's.
CBC News
CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...
Newfoundland and Labrador, March 7, 2008.
* 2001 -
Michael Crummey
Michael Crummey (born November 18, 1965) is a Canadian poet and a writer of historical fiction. His writing often draws on the history and landscape of Newfoundland and Labrador. He won the 2025 International Dublin Literary Award.
Life and educ ...
, ''The River Thieves''
* 2002 -
Joan Clark
Joan Clark ( MacDonald; 12 October 1934 – 11 April 2023) was a Canadian fiction author.
Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama program, graduati ...
, ''The Word for Home''
* 2003 -
Robert Mellin
Israel Melnikoff (September 22, 1902 – July 10, 1994), known professionally as Robert Mellin, was a Russian-born American composer, lyricist, and music publisher. Born in Kiev (now Ukraine), he was raised in Chicago, where he began his career ...
, ''Tilting''
* 2004 -
Edward Riche
Edward Riche (born October 24, 1961) is a Canadian writer. He lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
Background
Riche was born in Botwood, Newfoundland. For three years he attended Memorial University, and then transferred to Concordia ...
, ''The Nine Planets''
* 2005 -
Joan Clark
Joan Clark ( MacDonald; 12 October 1934 – 11 April 2023) was a Canadian fiction author.
Born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, Clark spent her youth in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. She attended Acadia University for its drama program, graduati ...
, ''An Audience of Chairs''
* 2006 -
Kenneth J. Harvey
Kenneth Joseph Thomas Harvey (born January 22, 1962) is a Canadian writer and filmmaker from Newfoundland and Labrador.
Harvey's debut short story collection, ''Directions for an Opened Body'', was published in 1990., and was nominated for the C ...
, ''Inside''
* 2007 -
Kathleen Winter
Kathleen Winter (born 1960) is an English Canadian short story writer and novelist.Randall Maggs
Randall Maggs is a Canadian poet and former professor of English Literature at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College of Memorial University, in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. He is one of the organizers and now artistic director of the March Hare, the large ...
, ''Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems''
* 2009 -
Jessica Grant
Jessica Grant (born May 31, 1972 in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador) is a Canadian writer, whose debut novel ''Come, Thou Tortoise'' won the 2009 Winterset AwardRussell Wangersky, ''The Glass Harmonica''
* 2011 - Don McKay,'' The Shell of the Tortoise''
* 2012 - Andy Jones, ''Jack & Mary in the Land of Thieves''
* 2013 - Paul Bowdring, ''The Strangers' Gallery''
* 2014 - Megan Gail Coles, ''Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome''
* 2015 - Sara Tilley, ''Duke''
* 2016 - Paul Rowe, ''The Last Half of the Year''
* 2017 -
Joel Thomas Hynes
Joel Thomas Hynes (born September 29, 1976) is a Canadian writer, actor and director known for his dark characters and vision of modern underground Canada.
Career
His 2017 novel '' We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night'' won the Governor G ...
, '' We'll All Be Burnt in Our Beds Some Night''
* 2018 - Heather Smith, ''Ebb & Flow''
* 2019 - Megan Gail Coles, ''Small Game Hunting at the Local Coward Gun Club''
*2020 - Eva Crocker, ''All I Ask''
*2021 - Carmella Gray-Cosgrove, ''Nowadays and Lonelier''
*2022 - Shelly Kawaja, '' The Raw Light of Morning'' cbc.ca /ref>
*2023 - Holly Hogan, ''Message in a Bottle: Ocean Dispatches from a Seabird Biologist''