The Atlantic Book Awards is excited to announce the return of the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Award. The award, which was on hiatus for one year, will again be offered in 2025, with prize money generously donated by Bookmark Booksellers Inc. and administered by the Cabot Trail Writers Festival. 

The award is named for Alistair MacLeod, the late great Canadian author renowned for his mastery of the short story genre. Past winners of the prestigious award include Eva Crocker, Lisa Moore, David Huebert and Elaine McCluskey. 

“Here in Cape Breton, there are so many writers who were encouraged or mentored or inspired by Alistair,” says Cabot Trail Writers Festival Artistic Director Rebecca Silver Slayter. “He had the kind of greatness that has a tremendous generosity to it. And I think it’s so fitting that his memory is honoured in this particular way, in celebrating the words and stories of the generations of writers following after him. We’re so grateful to be able to help continue this award, honouring Alistair and the nominees for the award in his name at an annual event just down the shore from where he wrote.”

Books of short fiction by Atlantic authors and published during the past two years are eligible for the award. The deadline for submissions is Nov. 1, 2024.

Books of non-fiction, fiction, YA writing, and poetry are also being accepted for several other Atlantic Book Awards. The Call for Submissions is now open. Publishers have until November 1, 2024 to submit books for the 2025 awards. Self-published books submitted by authors are also eligible.

Because the Atlantic Book Awards brings together awards administered by a number of nonprofit groups, please take care to submit to the right organization. 

• Novels or short fiction collections published between Nov. 2, 2023 and Nov. 1, 2024 by Atlantic authors may be eligible for the Thomas Raddall Atlantic Fiction Award, a $30,000 prize. Please submit to the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.
• Books of poetry published between Nov. 2, 2023 and Nov. 1, 2024 by Atlantic authors may be eligible for the J.M. Abraham Atlantic Poetry Award, a $2,000 prize. Please submit to the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia
• YA books of fiction or nonfiction published between Nov. 2, 2022 and Nov. 1, 2024 by Atlantic authors may be eligible for the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature, a $5,000 prize. Please submit to the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. 
• Books of short fiction published between Nov. 2, 2022 and Nov. 1, 2024 by Atlantic authors may be eligible for the Alistair MacLeod Short Fiction Award, a $2,000 prize. Please submit to the Cabot Trail Writers Festival. 
• Books published by Atlantic publishers between Nov. 2, 2023 and Nov. 1, 2024 may be eligible for the APMA Best Atlantic Published Book Award. Please submit to the Atlantic Publishers Marketing Association.

Complete submission details are available for each award by the organization noted. 

Save the date! The 2025 Atlantic Book Awards Gala will take place at 7pm on Thursday, June 5 at Paul O’Regan Hall, Halifax Central Library. The 2024 gala was a tremendous success and we are excited to continue to build momentum for our wonderful and talented Atlantic Canadian writers and publishers.