City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize
The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize is awarded in honour of acclaimed Calgary writer W.O. Mitchell and recognizes literary achievement by Calgary authors. Established in 1996, the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize is coordinated through a partnership between The City of Calgary and the Writers' Guild of Alberta, which administers the award as part of the Alberta Literary Competitions.
Entries are judged by an independent jury recruited by the Writers' Guild of Alberta. Shortlisted authors have an opportunity to deliver a reading. The winning author receives a $5,000 cash prize and receives the award at the Calgary Awards Presentation in June.
Eligibility criteria
- Eligible books must have been published anywhere in the world between January 1 and December 1, 2025.
- The author must have lived (permanent address) in Calgary for a minimum of two years, as of December 31st, 2025.
- The following types of writing are eligible: fiction, poetry, non-fiction, children’s literature or drama.
- Self-published books with an ISBN are eligible.
- The following types of writing are not eligible: multi-author anthologies, cookbooks, guidebooks, textbooks, technical manuals, bibliographies and works of purely academic or scholarly nature. Books of fewer than 48 pages (except children’s literature), books that are not written in English or French, multi-authored books (if any one of the authors is not a Calgarian), and reprints or new editions of previously published books are also not eligible.
- If, in the opinion of the jury, no work in this competition merits an award, no award will be given. In all cases the jury’s decision is final.
Submission procedures
Submissions for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize are accepted in accordance with the Alberta Literary Competitions timelines, which run September through December for the award year.
- Entry forms must be submitted online at Writers’ Guild of Alberta no later than December 1, 2025. Printed forms may be requested if entrant is unable to access the online form.
- A $35 fee per title must accompany submissions. Credit card payment is available through the online form, or cheques payable to the Writers’ Guild of Alberta are accepted.
- Five copies of each book entered must be mailed to The Writers Guild of Alberta, postmarked no later than December 1, 2025
- Entries may be submitted by authors, publishers, or any interested parties.
- Ineligible material will not be returned.
Send books and cheques (if applicable) to:
The Writers’ Guild of Alberta
Percy Page Centre, 11759 Groat Road NW
Edmonton, AB T5M 3K6
2026 Finalists
The City of Calgary and the Writers’ Guild of Alberta are pleased to announce the finalists for The City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize, one of 13 Calgary Awards:
Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers, by Marcello Di Cintio
There’s Magic Here Too: A Trans Woman’s Guide to Being Monstrous, by Skylar Kay
The Crane, by Monica Kidd
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Shortlist reading
Hosted by the Writers’ Guild of Alberta.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 7 p.m.
Shelf Life Books, 1302 4th Street S.W.
Free to attend
Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers
by Marcello Di Cintio
In 2023, after weeks of investigation, United Nations Special Rapporteur Tomoyo Obokata came to a scathing conclusion: Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker program is “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” Workers complained of excessive hours and unpaid overtime; of being forced to perform dangerous tasks or ones not specified in their contracts; of being physically abused, intimidated, and sexually harassed; and of overcrowded, unsanitary living conditions that deprived them of their privacy and dignity.
In Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers, Marcello Di Cintio ranges across the country speaking to those who have come from elsewhere to till our fields, bathe our elderly, and serve us our Double Doubles, uncovering stories of tremendous perseverance, resilience, and humanity, but also of precarity and vulnerability. He shows that vast swathes of our economy depend on the work of people we don’t see, while expanding our awareness of what migrant work now entails, and revealing that our mistreatment of the most vulnerable among us diminishes our own dignity.
There’s Magic Here Too: A Trans Woman’s Guide to Being Monstrous
by Skylar Kay
Trolls, fairies, zombies, kelpies, mermaids, sirens, witches, and other marvellous beasts run rampage through Skylar Kay’s much-anticipated second collection of poetry. The contemporary fairytales in There’s Magic Here Too: A Trans Woman’s Guide to Being Monstrous celebrate radical self-reclamation and transformative power. From the stark cul-de-sacs of Calgary’s suburbs to the surreal liminality of Windsor’s riverbanks, Kay’s menagerie of shapeshifters refigures the image of monstrous queers and trans identities. There’s Magic Here Too moves across borders between stories, memory, bodies, and the neon-lit edges of identity, all in search of a home.
The Crane
by Monica Kidd
The Crane follows the difficult choices confronting someone who cannot go on being lied to and explores how they carry on in the face of hardship.
It’s 1968 and James Anderson’s twin brother Dave has just been killed in the Vietnam war. Knowing his turn is next, James turns his back on his family’s military legacy, evading the draft and travelling to Newfoundland to fulfill a promise his brother made to a fellow soldier. Unwittingly swept into an intergenerational family secret while on assignment for a St. John’s newspaper, James finds something in Newfoundland that could just save his life.