Anishinaabe author Kyle Edwards has won the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction for his novel Small Ceremonies.Small Ceremonies is among 14 titles, seven in English and seven in French, that were acknowledged by the Governor General’s Literary Awards as the best books of the year.The English-language prizes, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, are awarded for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, young people’s literature — text, young people’s literature — illustration, drama and French-to-English translation.The winner in each category will receive $25,000. The remaining finalists will each receive $1,000.The finalists and winners are chosen by a peer assessment committee for each category.Edwards’ Small Ceremonies follows a hockey team of Ojibwe high schoolers from Winnipeg, who are chasing hockey dreams and coming of age in a game — and a place — that can be both beautiful and brutal. “There is just a hierarchy in sport in the same way there is in the world, and I think a lot of times sports is a reflection, a mirror, of the real world,” he said on an episode of Bookends with Mattea Roach. “Native people in Canada, Indigenous people in Canada, we just love this game [hockey] so much. It’s really beautiful to see. It brings us together all over the country.”Toronto writer Claire Cameron won the nonfiction prize for her memoir How to Survive a Bear Attack, which investigates a 1991 bear attack that killed a couple camping in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park, an incident that’s haunted her since she worked at a summer camp there at that time. How to Survive a Bear Attack blends together Cameron’s own journey with cancer, magnificent descriptions of Algonquin Park and the true crime elements of this mysterious attack, to find answers, but not the ones she expected. Saskatchewan-born author Karen Solie won the poetry award for her collection Wellwater, which explores the intersection of cultural, economic and personal ideas of value, addressing aging, housing and environmental and economic crises.Celebrating persistence in the natural world, Wellwater offers a message that hope is the only way to address these issues. Heather Smith, a children’s author from Newfoundland now living in Ontario, won the award for young people’s literature — text for her book Tig. It follows a young girl who is struggling to accept her new life and new family after she and her brother are forced to move in with their Uncle Scott and his partner Manny. This Land is a Lullaby by Tonya Simpson, illustrated by Delreé Dumont, won the prize for young people’s literature — illustrated. Through a lullaby, the picture book celebrates the sounds of the Prairies and the Plains as the day turns to night.Uiesh / Somewhere, written by Joséphine Bacon, translated by Jessica Moore, won the prize for French-to-English translation. Rise, Red River, a play by Tara Beagan about a woman searching a dry riverbed for untold stories, won the prize for drama.Keep reading to learn more about the 2025 Governor General’s Literary Award English-language winners. Fiction: Small Ceremonies by Kyle EdwardsSmall Ceremonies is a book by Kyle Edwards. (McClelland & Stewart)Small Ceremonies follows a hockey team of Ojibwe high schoolers from Winnipeg who are chasing hockey dreams and coming of age in a game — and a place — that can be both beautiful and brutal. Edwards is an Anishinaabe journalist and writer from the Lake Manitoba First Nation. He is a member of the Ebb and Flow First Nation. He has won two National Magazine Awards in Canada, and he was recognized as an emerging Indigenous journalist by the Canadian Association of Journalists. He is currently a Provost Fellow at the University of Southern California, where he is pursuing a PhD in creative writing and literature. The peer assessment committee was Carol Bruneau, Bridget Canning and Conor Kerr.The 2024 fiction winner was Empty Spaces by Jordan Abel.Nonfiction: How to Survive a Bear Attack by Claire CameronHow to Survive a Bear Attack is a memoir by Claire Cameron. (Knopf Canada, Trish Mennell)In How to Survive a Bear Attack, Claire Cameron investigates a 1991 bear attack that killed a couple camping in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park, a rare and out-of-the-ordinary event that’s haunted her since she worked at a summer camp there at that time. How to Survive a Bear Attack blends together Cameron’s own journey with cancer, magnificent descriptions of Algonquin Park and the true crime elements of this mysterious attack, to find answers, but not the ones she expected. Cameron is a Toronto-based writer and journalist. She’s known for her novels The Line Painter, which won the Northern Lit Award, The Bear, which was longlisted for the 2014 Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, and The Last Neanderthal, which was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Globe and Mail, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon and The Millions, where she is a staff writer. The peer assessment committee was Kevin Chong, Norma Dunning and Adrienne Gruber.The 2024 nonfiction winner was Wînipêk by Niigaan Sinclair.LISTEN | Claire Cameron on The Current:The Current13:27Life outdoors after a skin cancer diagnosisPoetry: Wellwater by Karen SolieWellwater is a book by Karen Solie. (House of Anansi Press)Wellwater is a poetry collection that argues that the economic and climate crises are powerfully entwined. Celebrating persistence in the natural world, Wellwater offers a message that hope is the only way to address these issues. Wellwater also won the Forward Prize and was a finalist for the T.S. Eliot Prize.Solie is the author of several poetry collections, including Short Haul Engine, Modern and Normal, Pigeon, The Road In Is Not the Same Road Out and The Caiplie Caves. She has received many awards, such as the Trillium Poetry Prize and the Griffin Prize. She teaches half-time in Scotland at the University of St. Andrews and spends the remainder of the year in Canada. The peer assessment committee was Tammy Armstrong, Katia Grubisic and Kevin Irie.The 2024 winner was Scientific Marvel by Chimwemwe Undi.LISTEN | Karen Solie on Q:16:20What’s poetry’s role in the housing crisis?Young people’s literature — text: Tig by Heather SmithTig is a middle-grade novel by Heather Smith. (Tundra Books, Donald P. Barnes)Tig is about a young girl who is struggling to accept her new life after she and her brother are forced to move in with their Uncle Scott and his partner Manny. Tig acts up, starting daily arguments with her new guardians, and launches head first into her new goal of outrunning a wheel of cheese. But when things don’t go as planned, she must figure out what she needs to leave behind if she wants to keep going.Smith writes books for children and young adults. She is originally from Newfoundland, but now lives in Waterloo, Ont. Smith’s picture books include The Phone Booth in Mr. Hirota’s Garden, A Plan for Pops and Granny Left Me a Rocket Ship, and her YA books include Chicken Girl, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe and Baygirl. Smith won the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award in 2019 for her YA novel in verse, Ebb & Flow. The peer assessment committee was Wayne Arthurson, Susin Nielsen and Karen Rivers.The 2024 winner was Crash Landing by Li Charmaine Anne.Young people’s literature — illustrated books: This Land is a Lullaby by Tonya Simpson, illustrated by Delreé Dumont The Land is a Lullaby is a book by Tonya Simpson, left, illustrated by Delreé Dumont. (Orca Book Publishers, Dan McGarvey/CBC)Through a lullaby, the picture book The Land is a Lullaby celebrates the sounds of the Prairies and the Plains as the day turns to night. From the hum of the dragonflies to the northern lights, the book soothes children to sleep with the gift of song and dance, passed down from their ancestors.Simpson is a member of Pasqua First Nation and lives in Pigeon Lake, Alta. She is an anthropologist and also wrote the book Forever Our Home, illustrated by Carla Joseph.Dumont is a member of the Onion Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. She is an artist, painting in the pointillism style and creating smudge fans, dreamcatchers and pine needle baskets. She lives close to Revelstoke, B.C.The peer assessment committee was Dawn Baker, Matthew Forsythe and Bridget George.The 2024 winner was Skating Wild on an Inland Sea by Jean E. Pendziwol, illustrated by Todd Stewart.Translation: Uiesh / Somewhere by Joséphine Bacon, translated by Jessica MooreUiesh / Somewhere is a book written by Joséphine Bacon, left, translated by Jessica Moore. ( Benoit Rochon, Talonbooks )Uiesh / Somewhere is a poetry collection that contrasts the nomadic practices of Bacon’s ancestors and her experiences living in a busy city. Paying close attention to the details, from the northern lights to blaring sirens, the poems reflect on the beautiful and painful moments of her life. Bacon is an Innu poet born in Québec and now living in Montréal. Her poetry has won many awards, including the Indigenous Voices Award, the international Ostana Prize and the Prix des libraires du Québec, and has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry and the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal.Moore is a writer and translator based in Toronto. She is the author of Everything, now and The Whole Singing Ocean. Her translation of Turkana Boy by Jean-François Beauchemin won a PEN Translation Prize, and her translation of Maylis de Kerangal’s Mend the Living was nominated for the 2016 Man Booker International and won the UK’s Wellcome Prize in 2017. The peer assessment committee was Bilal Hashmi and Dimitri Nasrallah.The 2024 winner was Nights Too Short to Dance by Marie-Claire Blais, translated by Katia Grubisic.Drama: Rise, Red River by Tara BeaganRise, Red River is a play by Tara Beagan. (Playwrights Canada Press, submitted by Tara Beagan)Rise, Red River is a play about a woman searching a dry riverbed for untold stories in a world ravaged by fire. She’s accompanied by an ancestor as she plows through the ground, honouring those who keep going even through tragedy.Beagan is a Ntlakapamux and Irish Canadian theatre artist. Beagan is the co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous arts company called ARTICLE 11. She’s written over 30 plays, seven of which are published, and has won the Dora Award and Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama.The peer assessment committee was Kanika Ambrose, Sharon King-Campbell and Bruce McKay.The 2024 winner was There Is Violence and There Is Righteous Violence and There Is Death, or the Born-Again Crow by Caleigh Crow.
Kyle Edwards’ Anishinaabe hockey novel among $25K Governor General’s Literary Award winners
