Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

The Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is a Canadian literary award, presented since 2015 by online e-book and audiobook retailer and eReader manufacturer Rakuten Kobo.^[1]

Until 2024, awardees received a $10,000 prize, which was increased to $20,000 in 2025. Winners are also provided with support in marketing their books.^[1] Three prizes are awarded each year to debut books published in the prior calendar year in literary fiction, non-fiction, and one of 3 genre fiction categories. Each year a different genre is honoured in the genre fiction category, rotating between mystery, romance, and speculative fiction. Since 2023, the genre fiction category has been open to books published since the prize last accepted submissions in that genre.

Winners

Year	Author	Title	Genre	Reference
2015	Claire Battershill	Circus	Literary fiction	[2]
	Sam Wiebe	Last of the Independents: Vancouver Noir	Mystery
	Robyn Doolittle	Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story	Nonfiction
2016	Irina Kovalyova	Specimen	Literary fiction	[3]
	Nicola R. White	Fury’s Kiss	Romance
	Wab Kinew	The Reason You Walk	Nonfiction
2017	Lynne Kutsukake	The Translation of Love	Literary fiction	[4]
	Dee Willson	A Keeper's Truth	Speculative fiction
	Teva Harrison	In-Between Days	Nonfiction
2018	Omar El Akkad	American War	Literary fiction	[5]
	Sheena Kamal	The Lost Ones	Mystery
	Maria Qamar	Trust No Aunty	Nonfiction
2019	Nora Decter	How Far We Go and How Fast	Fiction	[6]
	Julie Evelyn Joyce	Steeped in Love	Romance
	Kate Harris	Lands of Lost Borders	Nonfiction
2020	Zalika Reid-Benta	Frying Plantain	Fiction	[7]
	J. R. McConvey	Different Beasts	Speculative fiction
	Jesse Thistle	From the Ashes	Nonfiction
2021	Michelle Good	Five Little Indians	Fiction	[8]
	Emily Hepditch	The Woman in the Attic	Mystery
	Eternity Martis	They Said This Would Be Fun: Race, Campus Life and Growing Up	Nonfiction
2022	Pik-Shuen Fung	Ghost Forest	Fiction	[9]
	Damhnait Monaghan	New Girl in Little Cove	Romance
	Jesse Wente	Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance	Nonfiction
2023	Erica McKeen	Tear	Fiction	[10]
	K.S. Covert	The Petting Zoos	Speculative Fiction
	Harrison Mooney	Invisible Boy: A Memoir of Self-Discovery	Nonfiction
2024	Jamaluddin Aram	Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday	Fiction	[11]
	Keziah Weir	The Mythmakers	Mystery
	Jérémie Harris	Quantum Physics Made Me Do It: A Simple Guide to the Fundamental Nature of Everything	Nonfiction
2025	Scott Alexander Howard	The Other Valley	Fiction	[12]
	Leanne Toshiko Simpson	Never Been Better	Romance
	Anh N. Duong	Dear Da-Lê: A Father's Memoir of the Vietnam War and the Iranian Revolution	Nonfiction