Writers who reach for the happiness that comes from mastering their craft can do extraordinary things.
Our incredibly successful graduates are proving it. Take a look below.
If you’re a part of our school and you’ve accomplished something wonderful, please share your success story, too!
xo,
Giant
“Maksimowska offers a engaging young narrator whose viewpoint is edged with ironies…. Coming of age in this book becomes a gauntlet of culture clash, dovetailed smartly with all the usual absurdities of growing up. ”
— The Globe and Mail
🏆 Toronto Book Award (nominated)
Mad Cow
Disfigured“Leduc persuasively illustrates the power of stories to affect reality in this painstakingly researched and provocative study that invites us to consider our favorite folktales from another angle.”
— Library Journal
🏆 Governor General Literary Award Non-fiction (shortlist)
🏆 Aurora Awards (shortlist)
How To Catch A Bear Who Loves to Read“A how-to manual in which a love of reading shines. ”
— Kirkus Reviews
🏆 Forest Reading Award (nomination)
Finding the Me in Time
The Speed of Mercy“Conlin’s characters are fierce, lonely, dangerous, and wild. This is the best short story collection I’ve read in years.”
— Annabel Lyon, author
🏆 The Miramichi Reader’s Very Best Books (gold medal)
🏆 Danuta Gleed Literary Award (shortlist)
🏆 Forest of Reading Evergreen Award (shortlist)
Took You So Long“It is this decision to dwell in the weirdness of everyday life, to examine with curious interest the bizarre choices people make to carve an unusual edge out of their otherwise conventional lives, that makes Took You So Long a gratifying read.”
— Literary Review of Canada
Daughters of the Deer“A beautiful book, this is urgent reading for anyone seeking to understand more about the myriad ways European colonization in the 1600s still reverberates today, to devastating effect.”
— The Globe and Mail
The Dependent“With candour and honesty, Danielle Daniel shares her painful journey as she discovers that marrying a soldier means also marrying the military, and that she is outranked at every turn.”
— Shannon Moroney, author
🏆 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award (shortlist)
Sometimes I Feel Like A Fox“The ideas inside unfurl outside the pages into readers’ own imaginative worlds.”
— The Boston Globe
🏆 Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award (winner)
🏆 Blue Spruce Award (shortlist)
🏆 First Nation Communities Read Award (finalist)
Walking With Walser“Walking with Walser, entertaining as well as profound, should be essential reading for Jane Jacobs fans, city cats and country mice, past and present devotees of Queen Street, dedicated pedestrians, and anyone with a sturdy sense of humour.”
— Zsuzsi Gartner, author
Peyakow: Reclaiming Cree Dignity🏆 Hilary Weston Writer’s Trust Prize for Nonfiction (shortlist)
🏆 George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature (shortlist)
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age“...lyrical and gritty, raw and vulnerable, told without pity, but with phoenix-like strength.”
— Jury, Governor-General's Literary Award
🏆 Governor General's Literary Award for Nonfiction (winner)
🏆 RBC Taylor Prize (shortlist)
Our Voices“Adventurous in spirit, a nature lover, a city wanderer, a photographer, and a bright mind, Diana’s outlook is truly international. In these times especially, her story, her many stories, need to be written and heard.”
— Marianne Rogoff, author
Breathing With Trees
Rag Cosmology“This debut explores an intimacy of ecological identities as wild, sensual and rhythmic as the cosmos.”
— The Globe and Mail
🏆 Klein Prize for Poetry (winner)
Wet Dreams“Erin Robinsong’s Wet Dream is a dazzling torrent of brilliance shot thru with genuinely delicious barbs of disgust, of precision.”
— Ariana Reines, author of A Sand Book
Liquidity
Seeking Shade“…an unsentimental yet humane collection of short fiction, written with consummate skill and restraint.”
— Danuta Gleed Award Jury
🏆 Miramichi Reader Very Best! Award (winner)
🏆 Danuta Gleed Award (finalist)
🏆 ReLit Award (finalist)
This White Nest“What Frances Boyle does with This White Nest is ask us to sit quietly for a bit, to “contemplate/The life of quiet,” to notice its gifts in a more mindful and grateful way.”
— Prairie Fire
Tower“Boyle draws on her admirable poetic talent to craft the novella in a deeply lyrical style, making Tower a delight to read.”
— The Ottawa Review of Books
The Turnaway Girls“A gorgeous fable about the way societies cage girls’ voices and the revolutionary things that happen when those voices break free.”
— Anne Ursu, author
The Sisters of Straygarden Place“Chewins weaves a vivid, otherworldly tale of family and secrets, with a gothic setting that serves as a character in its own right.”
— Publishers Weekly (starred review)
🏆 Foreword Indie awards (gold winner)
No Plan B“Heather’s book is a lighthouse for anyone who is done living on others’ terms and ready to actually work towards getting what they truly want.”
— Paul Jarvis, author
The Heaviness of Things that Float“Manuel’s writing is revelatory.”
— Vancouver Sun
The Morning Bell Brings The Brokenhearted
Born Again, Again“Born Again, Again is a compelling, honest, and thought-provoking story about life detours. This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in living the church experience without stepping foot inside.”
— Writer’s Digest Self-Published Book Awards
🏆 Next Generation Indie Book Awards (finalist)
🏆 National Indie Excellence Awards (finalist)
Garden For The Blind“Each of Kelly Fordon’s stories is perceptive, memorable and moving. I loved this book, and I will be haunted by its recurring characters for some time to come.”
— Julia Glass, author
🏆 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Short Story (bronze)
🏆 Midwest Book Awards (finalist)
🏆 Edward Hoffer Award (Finalist)
🏆 New York Book Festival (Honorable Mention)
River of Forgiveness“River of Forgiveness is a powerful novel bursting with emotional impact. I loved spending time with these characters.”
— Dennis Bock, author
Stoop City“Lush with unexpected metaphors that make beautiful the unlovely and unloved.”
— Foreword Reviews
🏆 ReLit Award (winner)
“A beautiful tale of female resistance . .. Tarry This Night is exactly the kind of story we need to remember what it means to endure despite the most dire circumstances.”
— THIS Magazine
🏆 Sunburst Awards (longlist)
Moving Parts“Lana Pesch’s stories have one foot in the world of Alice Munro — long, deep, satisfying and unsettling in equal measure — and the other foot in a younger, jazzier world where humour is currency and the sentence is king.”
— Annabel Lyon, author
In The Red Canoe“A warm story of intergenerational companionship and nature's everyday delights.”
— Publishers Weekly
🏆 Shining Willow Award (shortlist)
🏆 CBC Best Books (commended)
Dancing in Small Spaces“Leslie Davidson writes painfully and exquisitely, expressing the rawness of her loss in prose that is nothing short of breathtaking. This book travels her path along with her husband, Lincoln Ford, as they learn almost simultaneously that they are both struck by terrifying incurable diseases: he is sentenced to wandering his last years through the throes of dementia, while she faces a future with Parkinson’s. Such are life’s cruelties.”
— Goodreads
Not the Apocalypse I Was Hoping For“Haunting and soulful, tender and perverse, this extraordinary collection explores loss and longing and how perilously complicated love can be. Readers drawn to rich prose and gut-wrenching aha moments will devour these riveting tales.”
— Fran Kimmel, author
Fishing For Birds“[the] novel offers an astute examination of the despair engendered by solitude and of the paradoxical consolations it delivers.”
— Kirkus Reviews
🏆 American Book Fest Best Book, Women's Literature (winner)
🏆 American Book Fest Best Book, Literary Fiction (finalist)
Break the Good Girl Myth“Inspiring! Majo’s insightful words help fortify your creative confidence so you can discover and share your gifts with the world!”
— Jessica Hische, author
Lighting The Path
Chasing Zebras“As a geneticist, Margaret Nowaczyk has seen ‘the enduring misery of the human condition.’ But as a writer, she has turned that misery into pure art. Chasing Zebras is a brilliant testimony to the healing power of words.”
— Wayne Grady, author
Tarot“Tarot is a mind-bending tale that unfurls in a whirl of colorful characters and landscapes, like one of Anna’s dazzling tapestries.”
— Romina Russell, author
More Than You Can Chew“Marnelle Tokio’s semi-autobiographical book shows the tremendous ups and downs Marty faces, accurately depicting the behaviour and speech of teenagers. Watching the evolution of Marty’s attitude is satisfying.”
— The Calgary Herald
🏆 White Pine Awards, Fiction (winner)
🏆Society of School Librarians International’s Best Book Award (winner)
🏆 Saskatchewan Young Reader's Choice Awards (nominated)
🏆 Canadian Library Association’s Young Adult Canadian Book Award (nominated)
After That August
Zolitude“[A] spikily surreal debut collection...vivid, complex ... brilliant.”
— Library Journal (starred review)
🏆 Concordia University First Book Prize
🏆 Scotiabank Giller (finalist)
🏆 Governor General’s Award for Fiction (shortlist)
🏆 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction (finalist)
🏆 Danuta Gleed Award (runner-up)
Even That Wildest Hope“Whimsical and beguiling... just the perfect degree of oddness and sincere storytelling.”
— Quill & Quire
You Are Not What We Expected“...expertly crafted but seemingly effortless prose.”
— Danuta Gleed Award Jury
🏆 Danuta Gleed Literary Award (shortlist)
🏆 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature (winner)
Holding My Breath“Compelling and richly drawn? ... Ludwig has the gifts to launch beyond the predictable.”
— The Globe and Mail
What The Ocean Remembers“…Unrelentingly honest, sometimes harrowing, steeped in rich and startling insight, and conveyed in transparent prose – elegant as silk, tough as steel.”
— Lisa Moore, author
🏆 Foreword Indie awards (finalist)
🏆 BMO Winterset Award (longlist)
🏆 Miramichi Reader’s Very Best Books (Honorable Mention)
The Drowning Shark
Hunger Moon“Skuce has an obvious ease with language, and she writes with confidence.... reading these stories, it’s easy to see why they found favour with the editors of literary journals in Canada and the U.S.”
— The Ormsby Review
🏆 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize (finalist)
Finding HomeDiscover more about the school, guest instructors, and special programs, plus get creative writing ideas, inspiration, resources, and news from me.
One Scheme of Happiness
Lost Animal Club
The Crooked Thing
Gatecrasher