Literary Awards Program
FRED KERNER BOOK AWARD
2025 WINNER
Jen Currin has published two collections of stories, Hider/Seeker (2018), and Disembark (House of Anansi, 2024), a collection of stories that focuses on queer relationships. They have also published five collections of poetry, most recently Trinity Street (Anansi, 2023) and The Inquisition Yours (Coach House, 2010), which won the 2011 Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry and was a finalist for three other awards. Currin lives on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Halkomelem-speaking peoples, including the Qayqayt, Musqueam, Kwikwetlem, and Kwantlen Nations, in New Westminster, BC. They teach creative writing and English at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
2025 SHORTLIST
Disembark: Stories, by Jen Currin
Halfway Home: Thoughts From Midlife, by Christina Myers
The Old Moon in Her Arms, by Lorri Neilsen Glenn
What the Living Do, by Susan E. Wadds
The Suicide Tourist, by Myna Wallin
The Canadian Authors Fred Kerner Book Award is an annual award exclusively for CAA members. (Read more)
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2026 Fred Kerner Book Award Submissions Open January 5, 2026
2024 Fred Kerner Book Award Winner and Shortlist
WINNER – Dreaming Home (Biblioasis) by Lucian Childs, Windsor, ON
Sons of the East (Griots Lounge Canada) by Ifeoma Chinwuba, Ottawa, ON
Anecdotes (Book*hug Press) by Kathryn Mockler, Victoria, BC
Obaasan’s Boots (Second Story Press) by Lara Jean Okihiro, Toronto, ON, and Janis Bridger, Vancouver, BC
Catinat Boulevard (Freehand Books) by Caroline Vu, Montreal, QC
Fred Kerner Book Award Finalist Archives
The 2025 Whistler Independent Book Awards – Submissions Open March 1, 2025
The Whistler Independent Book Award (WIBA) is open to independently published authors across Canada.(Read more)
The 2024 Whistler Independent Book Awards Winners
The FICTION winner is Karen Barrow for Palmyra
The NON-FICTION winner is Barbara Leimsner for Quitting the Master Race: A Daughter’s Journey to Break the Bonds of Hate
The CHILDREN’S winner is Judith Silverthorne for The Treasure Box
Whistler Independent Book Awards Archives