Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children's Literature

New writers: those with less than two years&#8217; creative writing experience and/or no short-form publications (e.g., short stories, personal essays, or poems in literary magazines, journals, anthologies, or chapbooks).
Emerging writers: those with more than two years&#8217; creative writing experience and/or numerous short-form publications.
Early-career authors: those with 1 or 2 book-length publications or the equivalent in book-length and short-form publications.
Established authors: those with 3 or 4 book-length publications.
Professional authors: those with 5 or more book-length publications.

One prize ($5,000) is awarded each year for a book of fiction or non-fiction that is readily available in print; that was written by a living, full-time resident of Atlantic Canada; and that was published or distributed for the first time in Canada in the two years prior to the submission deadline. Additional finalists each receive $250.

Each cycle of the award covers two publication years to allow for the award’s annual alternation between children’s literature (with submissions accepted in odd-numbered years and prize awarded in the next spring) and YA literature (with submissions accepted in even-numbered years and prize awarded in the next spring).

The Ann Connor Brimer Award was established in 1991 by the Nova Scotia Library Association and supported by the family of Ann Elisabeth Connor Brimer — a teacher, researcher, and program coordinator who served as executive director of the Canadian Learning Materials Centre, founding member of the Nova Scotia Coalition on Arts and Culture, co-founder of Woozles Children’s Bookstore, and Atlantic Officer for the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. The award honours outstanding contributions to writing for Atlantic Canadian young people.

Beginning in 2016, the focus of this award began alternating annually between children’s literature (for readers up to 11 years old) and YA literature (for readers aged 12 to 17). The first prize for YA literature was awarded in 2017, and the first prize for children’s literature was awarded in 2018. In 2019, the Ann Connor Brimer Society passed stewardship and administration of the award to the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.

Beginning in 2022, thanks to the generosity of Gavin Brimer, the prize amount was raised from $2,000 to $5,000.