The Danuta Gleed Literary Award was created as a celebration of the life of Danuta Gleed, a writer whose short fiction won several awards before her death in 1996. Danuta Gleed’s first collection of short fiction, One of the Chosen, was posthumously published by BuschekBooks. The Award is made possible through a generous donation from John Gleed in memory of his late wife, and is administered by The Writers’ Union of Canada. The Award was first given in 1998 for books published in 1997.

Call for Submissions

The Writers’ Union of Canada and the Gleed family are pleased to announce the jury for the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, Canada’s pre-eminent award for the best first Canadian collection of short fiction in the English language, now celebrating its 29th year.

This year’s jury comprises authors Lisa Alward, Waubgeshig Rice, and Anuja Varghese. A short list will be announced in May 2026, with the winner being named in June 2026. The winner receives $10,000 and each finalist receives $1,000. To be eligible, books must be first collections of short fiction written by a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and published in Canada in the English language in the 2025 calendar year. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2026. Eligible titles may be submitted by publishers according to submission guidelines.

Eligibility

1) All entries must be Canadian-authored titles published in English between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025 and available through bookstores and libraries across Canada.
2) Only first collections of short fiction are eligible.
3) Co-authored or multi-authored collections are not eligible.
4) Posthumously published works are not eligible.
5) Only first editions are eligible. Second or later editions, revisions, and reprints are not eligible.
6) Translations from other languages into English are eligible if all other criteria are met. In the event that a translation wins the prize, 75% of the award money will go to the author and 25% to the translator.
7) Works that exist in electronic format only are not eligible.
8) Books written for children are not eligible.

How to Submit

1) All submissions must be made by publishers. Submissions made by authors or anyone acting as their agent will not be accepted. There is no limit to the number of titles a publisher may submit.
2) All submissions must be received by January 31, 2026.
3) Submissions received after the final deadline of January 31, 2026 are ineligible even if they were published on or before December 31, 2025.
4) Four copies of each title must be delivered to The Writers’ Union. Submissions can be shipped to The Writers’ Union of Canada, Attn Danuta Gleed Awards, 600 - 460 Richmond St W., Toronto ON M5V 1Y1. Books must be received by the deadline of January 31, 2026, to be accepted for the 2025 prize.
SUBMISSION FORM

IMPORTANT DATES

Submissions Open: November 12, 2025

Submissions Deadline: January 31, 2026

Short List Announced: May 2026

Winner Announced: June 2026

ABOUT THE JURY

Lisa Alward’s debut short story collection, Cocktail (Biblioasis), won the 2023 Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Cocktail also received the New Brunswick Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2024 Carol Shields Prize. Her stories have appeared in The Journey Prize and twice in Best Canadian Stories as well as in a variety of literary magazines. Born and raised in Halifax, she studied English at the University of Toronto and Queen Mary College in the UK. She worked in book publishing in Toronto in the 1980s and early ’90s, before moving with her young family to Vancouver and ultimately to Fredericton, where at fifty she began to write fiction. She is presently working on a short novel.

Waubgeshig Rice grew up in Wasauksing First Nation on the shores of Georgian Bay, in the southeast of Robinson-Huron Treaty territory. He graduated from the journalism program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2002 and spent most of his journalism career with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as a video journalist and radio host. He’s a writer, listener, speaker, language learner, and a martial artist, holding a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He is the author of the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge (2011), and the novels Legacy (2014), Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018), and Moon of the Turning Leaves (2023). He appreciates loud music and the four seasons. He lives in N’Swakamok — also known as Sudbury, Ontario — with his wife and three sons.

Anuja Varghese (she/her) is an award-winning writer and editor. Her work has appeared in several literary magazines and anthologies, and she is the Fiction Editor at the Ex-Puritan Magazine. In 2023, her short story collection, Chrysalis (House of Anansi), won the Writers’ Trust of Canada Dayne Ogilvie Prize and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and, in 2024, was longlisted for the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and shortlisted for the Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. Her debut novel, A Kiss of Crimson Ash (Penguin), the first in a new fantasy trilogy inspired by medieval India, is forthcoming in May 2026. Anuja lives in Hamilton, Ontario, with her partner, two kids, and two cats.

DANUTA GLEED LITERARY AWARD WINNERS