The Danuta Gleed Literary Award is a Canadian national literary prize, awarded since 1998. It recognizes the best debut short fiction collection by a Canadian author in English language. The annual prize was founded by John Gleed in honour of his late wife, the Canadian writer

Danuta Gleed Danuta Gleed (1946 – 11 December 1996) was a Kenyan-born Canadians, Canadian writer. Biography She was born in Kenya in a British camp for displaced persons where she spent her early childhood. In 1958, her family moved to England. At the time ...

, whose favourite literary genre was short fiction, and is presented by The

Writers' Union of Canada The Writers' Union of Canada (TWUC), founded in 1973, describes itself as supporting "the country's authors by advocating for their rights, freedoms, and economic well-being." Its members are professional writers who must have published at least o ...

. The incomes of her ''One for the Chosen'', a collection of short stories published posthumously in 1997 by BuschekBooks and released by

Frances Itani Frances Susan Itani, née Hill (born August 25, 1942) is a Canadian fiction writer, poetry, poet and essayist. She is a Member of the Order of Canada. Biography Itani was born in Belleville, Ontario, Belleville, Ontario,

and Susan Zettell, assist in funding the award. Initially

Can$ The Canadian dollar (symbol: $; code: CAD; french: dollar canadien) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, there is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviation Can$ is often suggested by notable style g ...

5,000, the prize money increased to Can$10,000 in 2004. The runners-up each receive Can$500. The nominations must be submitted before the end of January. The year's

shortlist A short list or shortlist is a list of candidates for a job, prize, award, political position, etc., that has been reduced from a longer list of candidates (sometimes via intermediate lists known as "long lists"). The length of short lists varie ...

is chosen by a jury. The varying jury is composed of Canadian writers, literary critics and publishers, such as

Gail Anderson-Dargatz Gail Kathryn Anderson-Dargatz (born November 14, 1963) is a Canadian novelist.

, Robin McGrath and

Hal Niedzviecki Hal Niedzviecki (born January 9, 1971) is a Canadian novelist and cultural critic. Born in Brockville, he was raised by a Jewish family in Ottawa, Ontario, and Potomac, Maryland, did his undergraduate studies at University College, Toronto, and ...

in 2012 or Douglas Glover,

J. Jill Robinson Jacqueline Jill Robinson (born June 16, 1955) is a Canadian writer and editor. She is the author of a novel and four collections of short stories. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and literary jou ...

and

Claire Holden Rothman Claire Holden Rothman is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, and translator.

in 2011. The first winning work was Curtis Gillespie's ''The Progress of an Object in Motion''. In 2010,

Joey Comeau Joey Comeau (born September 26, 1980) is a Canadian writer. He is best known for writing the text of the webcomic '' A Softer World'', and for his novels ''Lockpick Pornography'' and ''Overqualified''. Career In 2003, Comeau co-created the webc ...

's ''

Overqualified Overqualification is the state of being educated beyond what is necessary or requested by an employer for a position with the business. There can often be high costs for companies associated with training employees. This could be problematic for c ...

'' was withdrawn, as the writer already published a debut work. Only two books were shortlisted in 2010 (the fewest in the history of the award). However, the 2010 judges called the winning work ''Wax Boats'' by Sarah Roberts "truly remarkable," speaking of her versatility and her convincing writing in every conceivable voice, and likening her to Stephen Leacock's ''Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town'' for the modern age.

Winners and nominees

:1. Comeau's ''Overqualified'' was withdrawn as it was not his debut short fiction collection. He already self-published ''It’s Too Late to Say I’m Sorry'' in 2007.

References

;General
Official site of the Danuta Gleed Literary Awards with a list of awardeesList of winners, runners-up and other shortlisted people
;Specific {{reflist Canadian fiction awards Short story awards First book awards Awards established in 1998 1998 establishments in Canada