STAY TUNED FOR THE OPENING OF THE 9TH ANNUAL INDIGENOUS VOICES AWARDS in early December 2025
“The IVAs are a really important example of community rooted advocacy for the best literature in the country—and in the world, frankly. The IVAs open real doors and provide real support, encouragement, and resources for writers who are changing the landscape of literature in this country and beyond.”
—Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee), professor, author and IVAs champion
In 2025/2026 the Indigenous Voices Awards English prizes are administered by SFU professors and literary scholars Deanna Reder (Cree-Métis) and Sophie McCall (settler), and poet and UBC professor Billy-Ray Belcourt (Cree). This year’s jurors for the English prizes are to be announced.
The Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs) is a literary contest that aims to honour the sovereignty of Indigenous creative voices, and support and nurture the work of Indigenous writers in lands claimed by Canada. The IVAs are increasingly significant to the literary landscape, having elevated and championed the work of 145 Indigenous writers, introducing audiences around the world to compelling new literary voices.
Previous IVAs finalists in unpublished categories who went on to publish their work include Kelsey Borgford, Francine Cunningham, Marie-Andrée Gill, Elaine McArthur, Smokii Sumac, Francine Merasty, Amanda Peters, Cody Caetano, and Brandi Bird. Over 50 works from IVAs writers can also be found in Carving Space: The Indigenous Voices Awards Anthology published by McClelland & Stewart (2023), co-edited by Jordan Abel, Carleigh Baker, and Madeleine Reddon.
Support for the Indigenous Voice Awards is welcome and deeply appreciated; a charitable receipt will be issued to all donations given through the Ontario Arts Foundation: https://oafdn.ca/make-a-donation/,
The Indigenous Voices Awards acknowledge generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Penguin Random House Canada, Scholastic Canada, and the Pamela Dillon & Family Gift Fund, In addition, the IVAs co-chairs gratefully acknowledge support from Douglas & McIntyre for its donation of a portion of its sales of Richard Wagamese’s What Comes From Spirit and royalties from the republished Days of Augusta, by Mary Augusta Tappage Evans. The co-chairs also thank the countless supporters who have donated to the IVAs crowd-sourced fund over the years. Further donations are always welcome and deeply appreciated: please visit IndigenousVoicesAwards.org for more information.
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For images, interviews or more information please contact:
Katie Saunoris | KSPR
katiesaunoris@gmail.com
Prizes
This year, two $5,000 prizes will be awarded: one for Published Prose in English and one for Published Poetry in English. Two $2,000 prizes will be given for Unpublished Prose and Poetry, with the prize money divided equally among all finalists in these categories.
Jurors
The IVAs have always had wonderful support from a variety of talented jurors from the writing and academic community. This year’s jurors are to be announced!
Dates
Applications (English) will be opened on Monday, December 8, 2025 and will close on Friday, February 13, 2026
Shortlisted finalists for the English prizes will be announced in May, and recipients will be announced on June 21, Indigenous Peoples Day. All eligible IVAs applicants will be invited to participate in mentorship initiatives designed to cultivate relationships among emerging and established Indigenous writers and provide career and creative support.
The IVAs and Kwahiatonhk! to collaborate on French-language prizes
dates to be announced
New since 2025, to better support and represent the French-speaking Indigenous literary community, administration of the IVAs French-language prizes is a collaborative effort between the IVAs and Kwahiatonhk!, a non-profit organization dedicated to the development, promotion and diffusion of Indigenous literature.
Administered by Kwahiatonhk! with the support of Université Laval’s Chaire de leadership en enseignement sur les littératures autochtones au Québec (Maurice-Lemire), and a committee composed of Louis-Karl Picard Sioui (Kwahiatonhk!), Marie-Eve Bradette (Chaire de leadership en enseignement sur les littératures autochtones au Québec), and Alec Mahoney (coordinator), the French prizes are awarded in June during the Kwe! festival. Visit the Kwahiatonhk! website and Facebook page for dates and more information.
French language Prizes Now open via Kwahiatonhk! and the IVAs/PVAs
This year, there are two French-language prize categories totaling $10,000 in prizes for emerging Indigenous writers:
Children's literature ($5,000)
General literature ($5,000)
Submissions dates for Les Prix voix autochtone will be announced shortly. Visit https://kwahiatonhk.com/pva-concours-2025/ to apply or learn more.
Our Impact
Founded in 2017 with a crowd-funded purse of just over $115,000, as of June 2025 the IVAs have awarded $247,000 to emerging Indigenous writers working in various genres and languages.
The Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs) celebrate emerging Indigenous writers and foster wider readership and publication. Since its inception, the IVAs have showcased over 130 Indigenous writers, introducing their compelling voices to global audiences.
Les Indigenous Voices Awards (IVAs) célèbrent les écrivains indigènes émergents et favorisent l'élargissement du lectorat et de la publication. Depuis leur création, les IVA ont mis en lumière plus de 130 écrivains indigènes, présentant leurs voix captivantes au public mondial.
The IVAs logo is designed by Lou-ann Neel (Kwakwaka’wakw).