Hello, BPAA members and colleagues, 

I hope you all had a lovely long weekend and were able to enjoy a bit of the spring weather before it snowed again. I am holding out hope that it will melt and stay that way soon.

I have a short ED message today to go along with our short week.

Our next member roundtable on Author Relations is scheduled for Thursday, April 16 from 1:30 pm-3:00 pm MT. The discussion will touch on establishing author relationships, supporting authors throughout the publication process, navigating challenges, and leveraging opportunities. Registration is open to BPAA members. Please register through Zoom by Wednesday, April 15.

Next week, Alberta Partners for Arts and Culture is hosting a Creatives in the House Day at the Alberta legislature building. The BPAA will have a booth, and we are looking forward to connecting with MLAs to showcase the arts and culture sector in Alberta. 

All the best, 

Megan Bishop
Executive Director

The Book Publishers Association of Alberta is pleased to announce an upcoming virtual Member Roundtable on Author Relations scheduled for Thursday, April 16 from 1:30 pm-3:00 pm MT. 

The relationship between a publisher and an author is one of the most critical in publishing. Building and managing this relationship is a nuanced process with both challenges and opportunities. In this member roundtable, which expands on ideas explored in our recent PD session with Chelene Knight, publishers will have the opportunity to share their own experiences working with authors and other contributors, and learn from one another. The discussion will touch on a wide range of topics including establishing author relationships, supporting authors throughout the publication process, navigating challenges, and leveraging opportunities. 

The format of this event will be an informal discussion guided by the attached questions. The conversation will be facilitated by MacKinley Darlington of Athabasca University Press. 

This event is free and limited to members of the BPAA and their staff (including contractors). Please register to reserve your spot by 4:30 pm MT on Wednesday, April 15.

• University of Alberta Press is pleased to announce its annual event Literary Editions. Please join them online on Tuesday, April 28, 2026 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm MT. Everyone is welcome! For more information, visit the Eventbrite event page.

• Congratulations to our members who have titles shortlisted for the Alberta Literary Awards:

  • Freehand Books – Graveyard Shift at the Lemonade Stand for the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and the Short Story Collection Award.
  • Freehand Books – We Are All of Us Left Behind for the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction.
  • Frontenac House – There's Magic Here Too for the City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize.
• Freehand Books' book Northern Bull was featured on CBC Radio's The Homestretch. 
• Debut Freehand author Dania Idriss (Tales of the Mountains and the Sea) will be reading alongside Tracy Dawson, Susan Carpenter, and JoAnn McCaig at the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program's OUTRO event on Wednesday, May 20, 2026. 
• Laberinto Press will be part of the Indie Press Showcase at the Edmonton Poetry Festival on Sunday, April 12, 2026. There will be readings from their upcoming anthology Beyond the Concert Hall and they will have their catalogue for sale afterwards alongside other local indie presses. For more details, please check the festival’s page.
• Durvile & UpRoute author Jared Tailfeathers will be appearing at the Imagination Writers' Festival | Festival d'écrivain[e]s in Quebec City on Wednesday, April 22, 2026 with his books The Art of Making and Music of the Earth's Heartbeat.
• Congratulations to Christine Hassay Kohler for celebrating her 10-year anniversary with NeWest Press! Read more on the NeWest Press website. 
• University of Calgary Press's book What is Broken Binds Us has been long-listed for the 2026 Al and Eurithe Purdy Poetry Prize—congratulations! 

• Join the University of Calgary Press for their upcoming book launches:

  • Double Book Launch for We Survived Until We Could Live and Wound Archive at Shelf Life in Calgary on Thursday, May 14, 2026.

  • Book Launch for Beneficiary at Shelf Life Calgary on Tuesday, May 26, 2026.

  • Book Launch for We Survived Until We Could Live, at University of Alberta Henderson Hall, Friday, April 24, 12:00-1:30 pm. 

• HummingByrd House is launching its new children’s book, Martha Cream Cheese! A very special day! by author Charolette Player, at Audrey’s Bookstore on Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 2:30 pm! Come join author Charolette Player and Martha Cream Cheese herself, read from their new book and meet Martha, a bright, curious girl with a name as unique as her imagination, alongside her dog Lily, go on a wacky adventure to discover how to turn problems into possibilities! 

Please share your award announcements, interviews, and other big news with us so that we can feature it in future newsletters!

Every great book deserves to look as powerful as it reads. With Burke's acquisition of Houghton Boston, they combine speed, craftsmanship, and striking finishes to help publishers deliver standout titles, on time, every time. From trade fiction to magazines and beyond, they’ve printed it all. Let them bring your next project to life.

Please note: The Book Publishers Association of Alberta staff are working from home on Mondays and Fridays, with in-person office hours Tuesday–Thursday.

• Freehand Books is hiring a Publishing Assistant. The deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

Applications are now open for the Calgary Arts Development Project Grant – Organizations program, providing one-time project funding to registered non-profit arts organizations in Calgary. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, May 6, 2026.

Projects can include research, creation, development, production, presentation or dissemination of artistic work, or the development of new or adapted approaches to an organization’s operations or administration. Visit the CADA website for more information.

Nominate a deserving writer for the 2026 Prairie Grindstone Prize! 

The Prairie Grindstone Prize recognizes active prairie writers with the hope that a year of freedom from financial constraints will be beneficial to their career. This prize is not a book prize, but a writing prize for an engaged prairie writer, given in recognition of a body of work. The winning writer will receive a $50,000 gift of time and an opportunity to share past work with a wider audience, while making connections with new readers. 

The deadline to nominate a writer is Friday, May 15, 2026. Visit the Prairie Grindstone Prize website for more information. 

The Shevchenko Foundation (TSF) has announced that The Matryoshka Memoirs by Sasha Colby, published by ECW Press, is the winner of the 2026 KOBZAR Book Award.

Sasha Colby was presented with the award at a gala presentation ceremony held at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg on Thursday, March 26, 2026, for her work of creative nonfiction which explores the experiences of her grandmother, a forced laborer in Nazi Germany. Through research into her grandmother’s life, she discovers a parallel story of the woman who initially pulled her grandmother from servitude and was later imprisoned by the Gestapo. Colby weaves together the narratives of both women in a story of resilience and family, which demonstrates the unique and anomalous nature of the Ukrainian Canadian experience.

April 1–28, 2026: 2026 Edmonton Poetry Festival

April 12, 2026: Indie Press Showcase at the Edmonton Poetry Festival featuring Laberinto Press

April 13–16, 2026: The 2026 Bologna Children’s Book Fair

April 22, 2026: Durvile & UpRoute's Jared Tailfeathers at the Imagination Writers' Festival | Festival d'écrivain[e]s (Québec)

April 24, 2026: University of Calgary Press Book Launch: We Survived Until We Could Live
April 25, 2026: Canadian Independent Bookstore Day

April 28, 2026: University of Alberta Press Literary Editions

May 2, 2026: HummingByrd House Book Launch: Martha Cream Cheese! A very special day! (Audreys Books)

May 7–8, 2026: 2026 ABC Copyright Conference

May 14, 2026: Durvile & UpRoute Book Launch Event: The Headache Files: True Tales and Real Relief 

May 14, 2026: Double Book Launch: We Survived Until We Could Live (University of Calgary Press) and Wound Archive (Calgary)
May 14–16, 2026: IBPA Publishing University

May 26, 2026: University of Calgary Press Book Launch: Beneficiary (Calgary)

June 1–3, 2026: WBRA June Book Fair

June 4–5, 2026: Paris Book Market

June 11, 2026: Durvile & UpRoute Book Launch Event: See-Me Street: My Indigenous Homeless Journey 

June 22–26, 2026: 2026 Seoul International Book Fair
August 6–9, 2026: 40th IBBY World Congress

September 1–30, 2026: Alberta Culture Days
September 16–17, 2026: 2026 BPAA Annual Conference and AGM
September 17, 2026: 2026 Alberta Book Publishing Awards

October 7–11, 2026: Frankfurt Book Fair

April 10, 2026: Registration for the Canada Stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair

April 10, 2026: Foreign Rights Marketing Assistance Program (FRMAP)

April 10, 2026: Livres Canada Books Mentoring Program

April 15, 2026: Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (for books published between February 11, 2026 and April 14, 2026)

April 15, 2026: Balsillie Prize for Public Policy (for books published between February 11, 2026 and April 14, 2026)

April 15, 2026: Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction (for books published between February 11, 2026 and April 14, 2026)

April 15, 2026: Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers (for books published between February 11, 2026 and April 14, 2026)
April 17, 2026: Giller Prize (Books published between March 1, 2026, and April 30, 2026)
May 1, 2026: Governor General’s Literary Awards (for books published between July 1, 2025 to April 30, 2026)

May 4, 2026: Nominations for the Summer CIBA The Booksellers’ List Closes

May 6, 2026: Project Grant Program – Organizations (Calgary Arts Development)

May 13, 2026: Nancy Flight Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Editing
June 1, 2026: Connections & Exchanges Initiatives Grant (Edmonton Arts Council)

June 1, 2026: Invent & Adapt Grant (Edmonton Arts Council)
June 19, 2026: Giller Prize (Books published between May 1, 2026, and June 30, 2026)

June 24, 2026: Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (for books published between April 15, 2026 and September 30, 2026)

June 24, 2026: Balsillie Prize for Public Policy (for books published between April 15, 2026 and September 30, 2026)

June 24, 2026: Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction (for books published between April 15, 2026 and September 30, 2026)

June 24, 2026: Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers (for books published between April 15, 2026 and September 30, 2026)

July 6, 2026: Nominations for the Fall CIBA The Booksellers’ List Closes

July 8, 2026: Nancy Flight Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction Editing
August 14, 2026: Giller Prize (Books published between July 1, 2026, and September 30, 2026)
September 1, 2026: Grants for Individuals & Collectives (Edmonton Arts Council)

October 7, 2026: Professional Arts Organizations Operating Grant Program (Calgary Arts Development)
November 1, 2026: Access Copyright Foundation Events Grants

Ongoing: Alberta Export Expansion Program (Government of Alberta)
Ongoing: Canada Digital Adoption Program
Ongoing: Representation and Promotion (Canada Council for the Arts)
Ongoing: Sector Support, Innovation and Development (Canada Council for the Arts)
Ongoing: Student Work Placement Program (Cultural Human Resources Council)
Ongoing: Micro-grants (Canada Council for the Arts)

1. Final Orbit - Chris Hadfield (Random House Canada)

2. Recipe for a Good Life - Lesley Crewe (Nimbus Publishing Limited) 

3. The Correspondent - Virginia Evans (Crown)

4. 1984 - George Orwell (Penguin)

5. Wuthering Heights - Emily Brontë (Canterbury Classics)

6. Prairie Edge - Conor Kerr (Strange Light) *

7. Solo Dance and Other Stories - Manna Liu (1 Plus Books) *

8. Agnes Aubert's Mystical Cat Shelter - Heather Fawcett (Del Rey) 

9. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir (Ballantine Books)

10. Cousin Bear Comes to Visit - Halie Finney (Conundrum Press) *

1. The New Menopause - Mary Claire Haver, MD (Rodale Books)

2. Activist - Daniel Fried (Prometheus)

3. A Field Guide to the Birds of Alberta - David R. Scott (Heritage House) *

4. Trans History - Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett (Candlewick) 

5. Brassy Bit of Aging Crumpet - Mary Walsh (HarperCollins Publishers) 

6. Talk Treaty to Me - Crystal Gail Fraser and Sara Komarnisky (Collins) *

7. All About Love - bell hooks (William Morrow)

8. Theory of Water - Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Alchemy by Knopf Canada)

9. The Wealthy Barber Returns - David Chilton (Financial Awareness Corporation)

10. Hyperpolitics - Anton Jäger (Verso) 

1. Nighthawks - Lisa Martin (University of Alberta Press) * +

2. The Odyssey - Homer, trans. Emily Wilson (W.W. Norton & Company)

3. Enemy of the Sun - ed. Naseer Aruria and Edmund Ghareeb (Seven Stories Press)

4. Milk and Honey - Rupi Kaur (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

5. The Lost Spells - Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (House of Anansi Press)

6. A Really Good Brown Girl - Marilyn Dumont (Brick Books) *

7. South Side of a Kinless River - Marilyn Dumont (Brick Books) *

8. Wellwater - Karen Solie (House of Anansi Press)

9. Northerny - Dawn Macdonald (University of Alberta Press) +

10. The Idea of An Entire Life - Billy-Ray Belcourt (McClelland & Stewart) *

1. Endling - Maria Reva (Knopf Canada)

2. Best Canadian Stories 2026 - ed. Zsuzsi Gartner (self-published)

3. The Correspondent - Virginia Evans (Crown)

4. Good Citizens Need Not Fear - Maria Reva (Vintage Canada)

5. Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir (Ballantine Books)

6. A Minor Chorus - Billy-Ray Belcourt (Hamish Hamilton) *

7. Better Living Through Plastic Explosives - Zsuzsi Gartner (Penguin Canada)

8. The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances - Glenn Dixon (HarperCollins Canada)

9. Wild People Quiet - Tara Gereaux (Scribner Canada)

10. The Astral Library - Kate Quinn (William Morrow)

1. Whose Nest Is Best? - Lyndsay Wasko (Tiger Tales) *

2. Battlegrounds - H. R. McMaster (Harper)

3. Black Hearts - Jim Frederick (Crown)

4. The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace - Gary Chapman and Paul White (self-published)

5. Command - Anthony King (Cambridge University Press)

6. Essentialism - Greg McKeown (Currency)

7. The Fearless Organization - Amy C. Edmondson (Wiley)

8. LikeWar - P. W. Singer and Emerson Brooking (Mariner Books)

9. Maneuver Warfare Handbook - William S Lind (Routledge)

10. Upstream - Mary Oliver (Penguin Books)

* Alberta Author  + Alberta Publisher
Calgary Bestseller List Week Ending 2026-03-26

Thank you to Shelf Life Books and Owl's Nest Books for providing sales data.

5 key takeaways from trendspotting (BookNet Canada)

Markets Are Made, Not Found: Publishing’s Self-Fulfilling Prophecies (The New Publishing Standard)

Canadian Print Book Sales Rose 4.1% in 2025 (Publishers Weekly)

“Books are mirrors: You only see in them what you already have inside you.” 

— Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Copyright © 2026 Book Publishers Association of Alberta, All rights reserved.

The Book Publishers Association of Alberta is grateful for the support of our funders:
City of Edmonton | Edmonton Arts Council | City of Calgary | Calgary Arts Development | Canada Council for the Arts | Department of Canadian Heritage | Government of Alberta | Arts, Culture, and Status of Women | Access Copyright Foundation