Kobo Emerging Writer Prize
Canadian literary award
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The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is a Canadian literary award, presented since 2015 by online e-book and audiobook retailer and eReader manufacturer Rakuten Kobo.[1]
Until 2024, awardees received a $10,000 prize, which was increased to $20,000 in 2025. Winners are also provided with support in marketing their books.[1] Three prizes are awarded each year to debut books published in the prior calendar year in literary fiction, non-fiction, and one of 3 genre fiction categories. Each year a different genre is honoured in the genre fiction category, rotating between mystery, romance, and speculative fiction. Since 2023, the genre fiction category has been open to books published since the prize last accepted submissions in that genre.
Winners
| Year | Author | Title | Genre | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Claire Battershill | Circus | Literary fiction | [2] |
| Sam Wiebe | Last of the Independents: Vancouver Noir | Mystery | ||
| Robyn Doolittle | Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story | Nonfiction | ||
| 2016 | Irina Kovalyova | Specimen | Literary fiction | [3] |
| Nicola R. White | Fury’s Kiss | Romance | ||
| Wab Kinew | The Reason You Walk | Nonfiction | ||
| 2017 | Lynne Kutsukake | The Translation of Love | Literary fiction | [4] |
| Dee Willson | A Keeper's Truth | Speculative fiction | ||
| Teva Harrison | In-Between Days | Nonfiction | ||
| 2018 | Omar El Akkad | American War | Literary fiction | [5] |
| Sheena Kamal | The Lost Ones | Mystery | ||
| Maria Qamar | Trust No Aunty | Nonfiction | ||
| 2019 | Nora Decter | How Far We Go and How Fast | Fiction | [6] |
| Julie Evelyn Joyce | Steeped in Love | Romance | ||
| Kate Harris | Lands of Lost Borders | Nonfiction | ||
| 2020 | Zalika Reid-Benta | Frying Plantain | Fiction | [7] |
| J. R. McConvey | Different Beasts | Speculative fiction | ||
| Jesse Thistle | From the Ashes | Nonfiction | ||
| 2021 | Michelle Good | Five Little Indians | Fiction | [8] |
| Emily Hepditch | The Woman in the Attic | Mystery | ||
| Eternity Martis | They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life and Growing Up | Nonfiction | ||
| 2022 | Pik-Shuen Fung | Ghost Forest | Fiction | [9] |
| Damhnait Monaghan | New Girl in Little Cove | Romance | ||
| Jesse Wente | Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance | Nonfiction | ||
| 2023 | Erica McKeen | Tear | Fiction | [10] |
| K.S. Covert | The Petting Zoos | Speculative Fiction | ||
| Harrison Mooney | Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery | Nonfiction | ||
| 2024 | Jamaluddin Aram | Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday | Fiction | [11] |
| Keziah Weir | The Mythmakers | Mystery | ||
| Jérémie Harris | Quantum Physics Made Me Do It: A Simple Guide to the Fundamental Nature of Everything | Nonfiction | ||
| 2025 | Scott Alexander Howard | The Other Valley | Fiction | [12] |
| Leanne Toshiko Simpson | Never Been Better | Romance | ||
| Anh N. Duong | Dear Da-Lê: A Father's Memoir of the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution | Nonfiction | ||
| 2026 | Marc Bendavid | The Sapling | Fiction | [13] |
| Marcus Kliewer | We Used to Live Here | Speculative Fiction | ||
| Lyse Doucet | A People's History of Afghanistan | Nonfiction |