Congratulations to our 2022 winners!

Canada’s best debut books in Nonfiction, Literary Fiction, and Romance have been chosen.

About the 2022 prize

Rakuten Kobo has chosen the winners of its eighth annual Emerging Writer Prize, adding three new Canadian authors to its growing list of celebrated writers. Debut authors in Nonfiction, Literary Fiction, and Romance each were awarded a $10,000 CAD cash prize, and will receive promotional, marketing, and communications support from Rakuten Kobo to help get them started in the world of publishing.

Surprising this year's winners over Zoom

2022 Non-Fiction Winner

Unreconciled: Family, Truth, and Indigenous Resistance by Jesse Wente

Deftly weaving together memoir and essays on topics that range from police power to cultural appropriation, he builds a devastating but convincing critique of Canada’s shameful relationship with indigenous people. There is anger in this book, but justified anger, as well as humour and hope.

Wente titles his book “Unreconciled” because, as he writes, reconciliation is only possible when there has been a relationship. In his telling, Canada and its indigenous people have never had a true relationship, and Unreconciled is a challenge to create that connection for the first time. Non-indigenous readers of this book may disagree with individual points, but most will never look at Canada in the same way again.
— Katherine Ashenburg Journalist, novelist, and this year's Non-Fiction judge

The 2022 Non-Fiction Shortlist

Don't Call It a Cult: The Shocking Story of Keith Raniere and the Women of NXIVM by Sarah Berman

My Mother's Daughter: A Memoir of Struggle and Triumph by Perdita Felicien

Yearbook by Seth Rogen

Measuring Up: A Memoir of Fathers and Sons by Dan Robson

Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy by Rachel Ricketts

2022 Literary Fiction Winner

Ghost Forest by Pik-Shuen Fung

An exquisite novel about a woman in an 'astronaut family'—one in which the mother and children immigrated to Vancouver, while the father stayed behind to work in Hong Kong. In this story, the narrator has to grieve the death of her father, after only spending time with him sporadically throughout her life. The preciseness of the imagery and emotions in the novel is astounding and each paragraph has the beauty and visceral evocation of a poem. We learn about the quiet customs of a Hong Kong death ceremony, the ways in which parents sacrifice their lives for their children, and the quiet devastation love has when we hold it in our hands and look at it closely. A beautiful revelation by a writer whose razor sharp skills will take her to great places.
— Heather O'Neill Novelist and this year's Literary Fiction judge

The 2022 Literary Fiction Shortlist

The Push by Ashley Audrain

Personal Attention Roleplay by Helen Chau Bradley

The Quiet is Loud by Samantha Garner

Spindrifts by A-M Mawhiney

Satellite Love by Genki Ferguson

2022 Romance Winner

New Girl in Little Cove by Damhnait Monaghan

Little Cove is the quintessential small town no reader will want to leave. Newfoundland’s rich history is present in the delightful Irish-Catholic dialect, dry wit, and poker-faced slow burn of a romance that thoroughly satisfies. If you’ve ever longed for the Derry Girls to grow up and fall in love, gentle Jaysus in the garden, you’ll love this book.
— Nana Malone Novelist and this year's Romance judge