The Writers' Union of Canada

06/25/2026

BIPOC Writers Connect is back! ✨💻📣

is a virtual conference for Black, Indigenous, and racialized emerging writers in Canada to connect with industry professionals, established authors, and fellow emerging writers — all in one place! This program is presented by The Writers’ Union of Canada and committed to cultivating space where BIPOC writers can share tools, strategies, feedback, and knowledge.

This virtual one-day event includes:
🔹one-on-one time for feedback with a professional writer who has reviewed your work in advance;
🔹workshop on query letter-writing;
🔹industry panel discussion;
🔹networking opportunities.

BIPOC Writers Connect is a free event, with no application fees, but advance application is required.

For full details, visit: writersunion.ca/bipoc-writers-connect 🔗
Applications close: July 26, 2026, 11:59 pm PDT ⏰
Successful applicants will be notified by September 2026
Virtual conference: October 22, 2026 on Zoom

[ID: Promo graphic with TWUC logo and text: BIPOC Writers Connect 2026. Apply Now. Deadline: July 26, 2026.]

06/22/2026

Applications are open! 📖🎤✨ Apply to the Union’s Program. Get paid for your author events taking place between September 1, 2026 – March 31, 2027.

Authors participating in this program must be members of The Writers’ Union of Canada. Host organizations and authors may apply for funding for in-person or live virtual readings taking place in Canada.

Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, the NPR program encourages public engagement of literary work while providing an honorarium to authors for their time.

Visit our website for full details: writersunion.ca/national-public-readings-program🔗
Deadline: July 19, 2026, 11:59 pm ET.



[ID: promo graphic with TWUC logo, CCA logo, photo of a stack of books, and text: National Public Readings Program. Apply now. Deadline: July 19, 2026.]

06/12/2026

Join literary agent Nour Sallam as she demystifies the process of finding a literary agent. Nour will outline the relationship between author and agent, including important insights into what agents are looking for, how they work with their clients, when it’s time to look for an agent, and what you should look for in one. Hosted by author Alessandra Requena, this webinar runs 60 minutes including a Q&A period.

🖥️ Author & Agent
🗓 Thursday, June 18, 2026
🕑 2:00 pm ET / 11:00 am PT
60 minutes
Hosted on Zoom
Live captions available
Registration: $25 +HST / Free for TWUC members
🔗 REGISTER NOW: writersunion.ca/webinars

Suggested Reading: Author & Agent (2026) by Michael Redhill as part of the Writers’ How-to Series. Purchase your digital copy here: https://writersunion.ca/writers-how-to-series. Members have free access to the series through the TWUC Member Portal.

Members of The Writers’ Union of Canada will have access to a recording of the webinar for a limited time. Non-members will only have access to the live event. This webinar is generously supported by Access Copyright Foundation.



[ID: TWUC and Access Copyright Foundation logos and photos of Nour Sallam and Alessandra Requena. Text: Author & Agent. Webinar. June 18, 2026. New publication cover: Author & Agent by Michael Redhill.]

06/11/2026

Please join us in celebrating the winner and finalists of the 33rd annual Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers! ✨🎉💐

Congratulations to... Kelly Pedro, winner of the 2026 Short Prose Competition, for her story, “Terceira Rift.”

This year, 29 Union members donated their time and expertise to read 604 submissions and distill them into a long list of 133 stories. These stories went on to a second round of 29 readers who selected the following finalists to pass on to the jury.

Congratulations to the 2026 finalists:
“The Prescription,” Christine Birbalsingh
“How to Settle an Old Dog,” Pamela Dillon
“Code 1815,” Barbara Ellison
“Brushes with Death and Marriage,” Claudia Gahlinger
“Sudbury Saturday Night,” Emily Groot
“The Dumpster,” MJ Malleck
“Devil's Grass,” Margo McCall
“Upstream,” Dawn Miller
“Skylines,” Brett Nelson
“Clearing the Board,” Robyn Schleihauf
“Liv,” Vaughn Thomas

The winner receives a $2,500 prize and the Union will submit the winning story and the eleven other shortlisted stories to three Canadian magazine publishers for their consideration.

🔗
Read the full press release: https://writersunion.ca/news
Watch the awards announcement: https://bit.ly/TWUC-awards-2026

[ID: Promo graphics with TWUC logo, text: Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers 2026. Congratulations! Photo of Kelly Pedro. Names of finalists and titles listed in copy above.]

06/11/2026

The Writers’ Union of Canada is thrilled to announce that Kelly Pedro has won the 33rd annual Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers, for the best story under 2,500 words, with her piece “Terceira Rift.” 💐✨🎉 Congratulations, Kelly!

Jury members David Huebert, Shauna Singh Baldwin, and Léa Taranto noted:

“Terceira Rift” is an eloquent, lyrical, and plaintive story about the parent-child relationship. In an elegant structure, the story’s six elevation markers act as structural pacing cues that delineate narrative beats. The author mixes passages of stirring dialogue with lush, evocative prose swimming with volcanic and oceanic imagery. In the story’s governing metaphor, the titular island comes to stand in for the narrator’s precarious relationship with their mother — the emotional crux of the story. This is a tender, musical tale about ancestry, guilt, abandonment, and reconciliation.

🔗
Read the full press release: https://writersunion.ca/news
Watch the awards announcement: https://bit.ly/TWUC-awards-2026

Our sincere thanks to all contributors, readers, jurors, and the Union’s public funding partners, the Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, Ontario Arts Council - Conseil des arts de l'Ontario and Ontario Government, and the many generous sponsors and donors who support the Union’s work on behalf of all writers.

[ID: Photo of Kelly Pedro. TWUC logo. Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers 2026. Winner. “Terceira Rift.”

06/11/2026

Please join us in celebrating the winner, runners-up, and finalists of the 29th Annual Danuta Gleed Literary Award! 💐🎉📚

Congratulations to... Leila Marshy, winner of the 2025 Danuta Gleed Literary Award for her work, My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books). 🌟🌟🌟

Runners-up Caitlin Galway for A Song for Wildcats (Rare Machines) & Mikka Jacobsen for Good Victory (Freehand Books). ✨

Finalists Catherine Hunter for Seeing You Home (Signature Editions) & Tracey Lindberg for The Cree Word for Love: Sâkihitowin (HarperAvenue). 💫

The winner receives a prize of $10,000 and all shortlisted authors receive $1,000. The Danuta Gleed Award is made possible through a generous donation from John Gleed, in memory of his late wife, Danuta Gleed, and administered by The Writers’ Union of Canada.

Thank you to this year’s jury Lisa Alward, Waubgeshig Rice, and Anuja Varghese.

🔗
Read the full press release: https://writersunion.ca/news
Watch the awards announcement: https://bit.ly/TWUC-awards-2026



[ID: Promo graphics with TWUC logo and text: Danuta Gleed Literary Award 2025. Congratulations! Winner, Runners-up, Finalists. Photos of the authors and book covers listed in copy above].

Photo credits: Leif Norman (Catherine Hunter), Keysay Cook-Lindberg (Tracey Lindberg), Emma Palm (Mikka Jacobsen), Cayoup (Leila Marshy).

06/11/2026

Congratulations to Leila Marshy, winner of The Writers’ Union of Canada’s 29th Annual Danuta Gleed Literary Award for her work, My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books). 🎉🌟💫

Jury members Lisa Alward, Waubgeshig Rice, and Anuja Varghese said:
“A fierce and dazzling debut, My Thievery of the People scrutinizes the legacies of colonialism and patriarchy with an unflinching eye to the damage wreaked on both oppressed and oppressor. Travelling between the Middle East and North America, and assuming a breath-taking array of fictional modes, from naturalism to surrealism to magic realism, these tightly crafted stories are remarkable for the alchemy of Leila Marshy’s prose, slipping from the ordinary to the menacing in the blink of a sentence, and the moral complexity of her vision. Nowhere is this more evident than in her exquisite folk tale “Not Blood,” which reimagines the 1948 Nakba from the perspective of a Jewish settler community haunted by its original thievery.”

Read the full press release: https://writersunion.ca/news 🔗

Our sincere thanks to all contributors, readers, jurors, and the Union’s public funding partners Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada, Ontario Arts Council - Conseil des arts de l'Ontario and the Government of Ontario, and the many generous sponsors and donors who support the Union’s work on behalf of all writers. The award is made possible through a generous donation from John Gleed, in memory of his late wife, Danuta Gleed, and administered by The Writers’ Union of Canada. 📖



[ID: Promo graphic with TWUC logo and text: Danuta Gleed Literary Award 2025 Winner. Photo of Leila Marshy and book cover My Thievery of the People.]

Photo credit: Cayoup.

06/11/2026

The Writers’ Union of Canada is thrilled to share the Awards Announcement for the 29th annual Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 33rd annual Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers! 🎉📚

Watch the announcement, with remarks from this year's winners and jury. Please join us in congratulating the winners, runners-up, and finalists! 🌟🌟🌟 https://bit.ly/TWUC-awards-2026

The Danuta Gleed Literary Award recognizes the best first collection of short fiction by a Canadian author published in 2025 in the English language. The winner is awarded a first prize of $10,000, and all shortlisted authors receive $1,000.

The Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers aims to discover, encourage, and promote new writers of short prose in order to provide opportunity and exposure to developing writers. A $2,500 prize is awarded to a Canadian writer for the best piece of unpublished prose of up to 2,500 words in the English language.

Learn more: writersunion.ca

The Writers’ Union of Canada’s awards announcement of the winners of the 2025 Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the 2026 Short Prose Competition for Emerging Writers.

06/02/2026

Getting from the beginning to the end. What makes a good story and what makes a strong narrative arc? Join 2024 Danuta Gleed Award winner Canisia Lubrin, and finalist Nicola Winstanley for a discussion about shaping a story. Moderated by award-winning author Patricia Westerhof, this webinar runs 60 minutes including a Q&A period.

🖥️ Shaping a Story: In Conversation with Past Danuta Gleed Award Winner and Finalist
🗓 Tuesday, June 9, 2026
🕑 2:00 pm ET / 11:00 am PT
60 minutes
Hosted on Zoom
Live captions available
Registration: $25 +HST / Free for TWUC members
🔗 REGISTER NOW: writersunion.ca/webinars

Members of The Writers’ Union of Canada (TWUC) will have access to a recording of the webinar for a limited time. Non-members will only have access to the live event. This webinar is generously supported by Access Copyright Foundation.



[ID: TWUC and Access Copyright Foundation logos and photos of Canisia Lubrin, Nicola Winstanley, and Patricia Westerhof. Text: Shaping a Story: In Conversation with Past Danuta Gleed Award Winner and Finalist. Webinar. June 9, 2026.]

06/01/2026

Check out the latest issue of Write magazine! 💻🌷🌩 Topics include writing for young readers, book bans and how to fight them, and how to market without social media.

If you’ve opted in to receive a print copy of the magazine, the Spring 2026 issue will be arriving in the mail in the coming weeks. As always, members of the Union can access the magazine online by logging in to the TWUC Member Portal 🔗 portal.writersunion.ca/write-magazine

Wondering what you might be missing if you're not a member? Visit our website to get a sneak peek 👀 writersunion.ca/write-magazine

Included in this issue:
▫️Letter from the Chair, Kim Fahner
▫️Letter from the Editor, Philip Moscovitch
▫️Writer’s Blot by Carmen Rodríguez
▫️Features by Maria Birmingham, Colette Poitras, Robin Stevenson, Caroline Fernandez, Liana Tang, and Kathleen McDonnell
▫️Spotlight by Mix Hart
▫️Dispatches by Gillian O’Reilly
▫️Writing Rights & Industry News by John Degen
▫️Crossword by Ada Nicolle
▫️Cover illustration by Janine Carrington

[Image Description: Cover illustration by Janine Carrington that depicts a writer sitting on a park bench, working on a laptop, looking up to the sky worryingly, as a thunderstorm approaches. Ducks, rabbits, and spring flowers bloom in the foreground.]