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Manitoba Book Awards

releases short list

The Manitoba Book Awards has unveiled the short lists for the literary prizes to be presented this year.

Ian McCausland Zilla Jones

Ian McCausland

Zilla Jones

For the 2026 awards, jurors evaluated 42 submissions in both English and French, and will present six prizes in total for best first book as well as best fiction, non-fiction and poetry, plus the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and a prize for French literature.

Three books received multiple nominations — Catherine Hunter’s short-story collection Seeing You Home, Zilla Jones’ debut novel The World So Wide and R.Y. Abdulrehman’s first novel Jinn in the Family each received two nods.

In 2024, a feasibility study commissioned by organizers deemed the Manitoba Book Awards unsustainable, resulting in a two-year hiatus. A board of arts workers and writers now administers the prizes; after this year’s scaled-down return, a larger rollout is planned for 2027.

The Manitoba Book Awards will be presented at noon on Sept. 19, at the Park Theatre (698 Osborne St.) at a free event. The complete list of finalists is available at manitobabookawards.ca.

Comic Bassem Youssef

coming to concert hall

Egyptian-American comedian Bassem Youssef is bringing his Belly of the Beast tour to the Centennial Concert Hall on Nov. 28 at 7:30 p.m.

Youssef — known as the Egyptian Jon Stewart — was the host of popular TV show Al Bernameg, the first political satire show in the Middle East. Originally a five-minute show on YouTube, Al Bernameg became the first online-to-TV conversion in the Middle East and the most-watched show across the region, with 30 million viewers every week.

Tickets for the show (which is presented in English and is recommended for those 13 and up) go on sale Wednesday at 11 a.m. at centennialconcerthall.com. Prices have not been announced.

— staff

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