On Monday, November 14, 2022, Quebec’s English-language literary community gathered for the first fully in-person gala in over two years. The 2022 QWF Literary Awards Gala marked a new addition to the QWF awards roster. The first-ever QWF Spoken Word Prize was awarded to three spoken word artists in recognition of their outstanding literary achievement. With the addition of the Spoken Word Prize, this year’s gala bestowed the largest number of awards in QWF history.
The theme for the event was “Complex Times: When Nothing Is Black and White.” Attendees got in the spirit of the theme by dressing up in anything but black and white.
In the youth category, the 2022 Janet Savage Blachford Prize for Children’s and Young Adult Literature was awarded to Mina, by Matthew Forsythe, published by Simon & Schuster Canada.
According to jury members Sean Dixon, Nadia Lakhdari, and Lauren Soloy: “This is a profound story wrapped in the most basic structure and vivid drawings: a story as simple as The Three Little Pigs that sticks in the head to be called back when you least expect it… This uniquely told, beautifully illustrated story manages to look directly at the big idea of parental fallibility—wrapped up with love and faith and trust—from such a distinctly child’s eye that we don’t even know it’s doing it.”
You can watch the entire gala ceremony on YouTube here.