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Robert Cree and Conor Kerr are among the winners of the 2025 Alberta Book Publishing Awards.
The prizes, administered by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, annually celebrate the province’s best books of the year across 12 categories.
In addition to the awards given out, finalists were announced for the $5,000 City of Calgary W.O. Mitchell Book Prize. The finalists were Precarious: The Lives of Migrant Workers by Marcello Di Cintio, There’s Magic Here Too: A Trans Woman’s Guide to Being Monstrous by Skylar Kay and The Crane by Monica Kidd.
The Many Names of Robert Cree is a book by Robert Cree. (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Cree won the 2026 Alberta Literary Award for The Many Names of Robert Cree: How a First Nations Chief Brought Ancient Wisdom to Big Business and Prosperity to His People.
The Many Names of Robert Cree is an autobiography about Cree’s life, telling his experience in the residential school system, his journey of healing and reconciliation as he brought the wisdom of his ancestors and the need for reconciliation to the government and the oil industry’s arrival in his homeland.
Cree is a spiritual leader, teacher and former Chief of Fort McMurray First Nation 468.
The Many Names of Robert Cree was written with Therese Greenwood, who is a journalist and author living in Fort McMurray.
LISTEN | Elder Robert Cree on his memoir:
Edmonton AM12:23Former chief shares his life story in a memoir
Beaver Hills Forever is a book by Conor Kerr. (Arsenal Pulp Press)
Kerr won the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry for Beaver Hills Forever.
Beaver Hills Forever follows four Métis Edmontonians through their daily lives. Their alternating inner monologues reveal each of them pushing for a brighter future against systems often stacked against them.
Kerr is a Métis Ukrainian writer living in Edmonton. His previous works include the poetry collection Old Gods and the novels Avenue of Champions and Prairie Edge.
The other award winners are listed below:
- Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction Winner: Graveyard Shift at the Lemonade Stand by Tim Bowling
- Wilfrid Eggleston Award for Nonfiction: ᑭᐢᑭᓱᒥᑐᐠ kiskisomitok: ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ to remind each and one another by reuben quinn
- R. Ross Annett Award for Children’s Literature: Takedown by Ali Bryan
- Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama: Mermaid Legs by Beth Graham
- Short Story Collection: An Astonishment of Stars by Kirti Bhadresa
- James H. Gray Award for Short Nonfiction: Luminaries Eat Kale by Patti Edgar
- Howard O’Hagan Award for Short Story: Walking Jello by Barb Howard
- Robert Kroetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize: Stock by Jennifer Bowering Delisle
- Writers Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award: Caterina Edwards
