Our Nominees for the 2025 Journey Prize: Finding the Best of Canada’s New Writers
The Writers’ Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize recognizes the year’s best short story by an emerging writer first published in a Canadian literary journal or anthology. The prize is supported by James A. Michener’s donation of his Canadian royalty earnings from his novel Journey. In association with the prize, McClelland & Stewart annually publishes The Journey Prize Stories anthology, a collection of the longlisted stories. The winner is announced at the Writers’ Trust Awards in Toronto. —Directly quoted from the Writers' Trust website.
Blank Spaces has been invited to nominate 5 dark fiction stories for The McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize
McClelland & Stewart has announced the Journey Prize anthology will become a biennial themed fiction anthology, comprising a combination of previously published submissions and original commissioned short stories. As before, editors of literary magazines from across the country will be invited to submit what, in their view, are the best stories their publications have published by up-and-coming Canadian writers, though now on a given theme.
The editors of each Journey Prize volume will also now commission original stories directly from emerging Canadian writers.
This dual approach allows for the continued recognition of the vital role literary magazines play in fostering literary voices in Canada, while creating space for McClelland & Stewart and the Journey Prize editors to more proactively and thoughtfully meet the prize’s mandate to identify and support emerging writers, and to bring that talent to a wider readership during the crucial early stages of their careers.
The EDITORS
Acclaimed and bestselling authors Alicia Elliott and Heather O’Neill will be the editors for the first volume of this new iteration of the Journey Prize anthology.
To sit alongside the original commissioned stories from emerging Canadian writers, the editors will select stories submitted by literary magazines that fit the anthology’s theme.
This anthology will feature dark fiction: stories that broach the territory of horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, thriller, or some unholy combination of the four. We are using the term “dark fiction” specifically so writers will not feel the need to stick to one genre or its sometimes-limiting conventions.
The PRIZE
A winner from the literary magazine submissions will be selected by the editors. The winning writer will receive an invitation to the Writers' Trust Award Ceremony, along with a coveted mentorship facilitated by the Writers' Trust.
We are very pleased to be nominating five writers from our catalogue!
Ace Baker for Ghosts Left On Our Skin
Gareth Marks for The Ruins
Benjamin Rempel for Out From the Grey Barn
Andrew Shaughnessy for Check Please
Elle Warr-Addae for Cruel Children Carrying Carrion
Congratulations to our nominees! Decisions are in the hands of the Journey Prize team. Good luck to everyone!
Ace Baker is a writer, poet, and writing coach from Vancouver, Canada. His short story, “Victory Girl,” won the Storyteller Award, and his poetry has won the SIWC, PNWA, and Magpie awards, among others. Both his prose and poetry have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and National Magazine Awards. His short story collection How To Make a Killing Jar was published by Chicken House Press in 2023 .
Gareth Marks is an emerging writer of poetry and short stories from Stratford, Ontario. He studied mathematical physics with a minor in English at the University of Waterloo, and is currently living in the UK where he's pursuing a PhD in theoretical physics.
Benjamin Rempel is a Canadian writer and essayist. Nominated for several literary awards including the Pushcart Prize and the Rising Spirits Writing Award, his work has appeared in The Toronto Star, Our Canada, Streetlight, Blank Spaces, among others. Based on the merits of his debut novel, INFECT, he was awarded a 2025 literary grant from the Canadian Council for the Arts. His second novel, MUTATE, will be released November 2025. He can be found at benjaminrempel.com.
Andrew Shaughnessy is a Toronto-based intellectual property litigation lawyer and writer. He is a past contributor to Blank Spaces Magazine, as well as a one-time silver and three-time bronze medalist (and four-time short-lister) in past image prompt challenges. His short stories and poems have appeared with Off Topic Publishing, Syncopation Literary Journal, and Last Stanza Poetry Journal, among others. He has been nominated by Last Stanza Poetry Journal in 2024 for the Pushcart Prize. He is the 2023 Mississauga Library Poetry Prize Winner. He overuses m-dashes (and parentheses) and has (the love of) a dog.
Elle Warr-Addae is an emerging screenwriter, a creator of absurd fictional worlds. Her written works are perfect for being read aloud, or for the stage and screen. Born on the shores of Lake Ontario, her naughtiest years were influenced by a brief stint in the corn fields of Caledon. She is a student in the Creative and Professional Writing program at Humber Polytechnic, where she has worked as an editor of the Humber Literary Review and as an interviewer for Arrival magazine. Elle enjoys exploring themes of tragedy, filth, vice, and unexpected beauty.
