The Toronto Book Awards are Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the City of Toronto government to the author of the year's best fiction or non-fiction book or books "that are evocative of Toronto". [1] The award is presented in the fall of each year, with its advance promotional efforts including a series of readings by the nominated authors at each year's The Word on the Street festival.
Each author shortlisted for the award receives $2,000, and the winner or winners receive the balance of $20,000.
The award has frequently gone to multiple winners. 1987 was the first time in the history of the award that only a single winner was named.
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | William Kurelek | O Toronto | Winner | [2] |
| Desmond Morton | Mayor Howland | Winner | ||
| Richard B. Wright | In the Middle of a Life | Winner | ||
| Sandra Budden and Joseph Ernst | The Movable Airport | Finalist | [3] | |
| Austin Clarke | Storm of Fortune | Finalist | ||
| Michael Filey | Richard Howard and Helmut Weyerstrahs, Passengers Must Not Ride on Fender | Finalist | ||
| Hugh Hood | The Governor's Bridge Is Closed | Finalist | ||
| George Jonas | Cities | Finalist | ||
| 1975 | Claude Bissell | Halfway Up Parnassus | Winner | [4] |
| The Labour History Collective | Women at Work | Winner | ||
| Loren Lind | The Learning Machine | Winner | ||
| Max Braithwaite | Sick Kids | Finalist | [5] | |
| Juan Butler | Canadian Healing Oil | Finalist | ||
| Jon Caulfield | The Tiny Perfect Mayor | Finalist | ||
| Dennis Lee | Alligator Pie - Nicholas Knock | Finalist | ||
| Harold Town | Albert Franck: His Life, Times and Work | Finalist | ||
| 1976 | Robert F. Harney and Harold Troper | Immigrants: A Portrait of the Urban Experience 1890-1930 | Winner | [6] |
| Hugh Hood | The Swing in the Garden | Winner | ||
| Jack Batten | The Leafs in Autumn | Finalist | ||
| Morley Callaghan | A Fine and Private Place | Finalist | ||
| Austin Clarke | The Bigger Light | Finalist | ||
| Hans Jewinski | Poet Cop | Finalist | ||
| Harry Pollock | Gabriel | Finalist | ||
| Ian Wallace and Angela Wood | The Sandwich | Finalist | ||
| 1977 | Margaret Atwood | Lady Oracle | Winner | [7] |
| Margaret Gibson | The Butterfly Ward | Winner | ||
| Michael Filey | Trillium and Toronto Island | Finalist | [7] | |
| William Kilbourn | The Toronto Book | Finalist | ||
| Raymond Massey | When I Was Young | Finalist | ||
| Stan Obodiac | The Leafs: The First 50 Years | Finalist | ||
| Miriam Waddington | The Price of Gold | Finalist | ||
| 1978 | Christopher Armstrong and H. V. Nelles | The Revenge of the Methodist Bicycle Company | Winner | [8] |
| Timothy Findley | The Wars | Winner | ||
| Harry Adaskin | A Fiddler's World | Finalist | [9] | |
| Morley Callaghan | Close to the Sun Again | Finalist | ||
| George Jonas and Barbara Amiel | By Persons Unknown | Finalist | ||
| 1979 | Michael Bliss | A Canadian Millionaire | Winner | [10] |
| William Dendy | Lost Toronto | Winner | ||
| John Morgan Gray | Fun Tomorrow | Winner | ||
| Morley Callaghan | No Man's Meat and The Enchanted Pimp | Finalist | [10] | |
| Paul Duval | The Tangled Garden | Finalist | ||
| Marian Engel | The Glassy Sea | Finalist | ||
| James Lorimer | The Developers | Finalist | ||
| Peter Mellen | Landmarks of Canadian Art | Finalist | ||
| David Lewis Stein | City Boys | Finalist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | Raymond Souster | Hanging In | Winner | [11] |
| Stephen A. Speisman | The Jews of Toronto: A History to 1937 | Winner | ||
| Eric Arthur | From Front Street to Queen's Park: The Story of Ontario's Parliament Buildings | Finalist | [12] | |
| Margaret Atwood | Life Before Man | Finalist | ||
| Shirley Faessler | Everything in the Window | Finalist | ||
| Hugh Hood | Reservoir Ravine | Finalist | ||
| Richard B. Howard | Upper Canada College 1928-1979: Colbourne's Legacy | Finalist | ||
| Blair G. Laing | Memoirs of an Art Dealer | Finalist | ||
| 1981 | Timothy Colton | Big Daddy: Frederick G. Gardiner and the Building of Metropolitan Toronto | Winner | [13] |
| Mary Larratt Smith | Young Mr. Smith in Upper Canada | Winner | ||
| Helen Weinzweig | Basic Black with Pearls | Winner | ||
| Gregory S. Kealey | Toronto Workers Respond to Industrial Capitalism, 1867-1892 | Finalist | [13] | |
| John Lownsbrough | The Privileged Few: The Grange & Its People in Nineteenth Century Toronto | Finalist | ||
| Austin Seton Thompson | Jarvis Street: A Story of Triumph and Tragedy | Finalist | ||
| Richard B. Wright | Final Things | Finalist | ||
| 1982 | Claude Bissell | The Young Vincent Massey | Winner | [14] |
| Marian Engel | Lunatic Villas | Winner | ||
| Robertson Davies | The Rebel Angels | Finalist | [14] | |
| Michael Filey | I Remember Sunnyside | Finalist | ||
| Bernice Thurman Hunter | That Scatterbrain Booky | Finalist | ||
| Charles Sauriol | Remembering the Don | Finalist | ||
| Conn Smythe with Scott Young | If You Can't Beat 'Em in the Alley | Finalist | ||
| 1983 | Michael Bliss | The Discovery of Insulin | Winner | [15] |
| Lucy Booth Martyn | The Face of Early Toronto: An Archival Record 1803-1936 | Winner | ||
| Larry Partridge | The Witts | Finalist | [15] | |
| Clara Thomas and John Lennox | William Arthur Deacon: A Canadian Literary Life | Finalist | ||
| Tim Wynne-Jones | The Knot | Finalist | ||
| 1984 | Edith G. Firth | Toronto in Art | Winner | [16] |
| Gerald Killan | David Boyle: From Artisan to Archaeologist | Winner | ||
| Eric Wright | The Night the Gods Smiled | Winner | ||
| Bill Ivy | A Little Wilderness: The Natural History of Toronto | Finalist | [16] | |
| Rod McQueen | The Money-Spinners | Finalist | ||
| Marion Royce | Eunice Dyke: Health Care Pioneer | Finalist | ||
| 1985 | Warabe Aska | Who Goes to the Park | Winner | [17] |
| J.M.S. Careless | Toronto to 1918 | Winner | ||
| Josef Skvorecky | The Engineer of Human Souls | Winner | ||
| Patrick Brode | Sir John Beverley Robinson | Finalist | [18] | |
| Margaret McKelvey and Merlyn McKelvey | Toronto: Carved in Stone | Finalist | ||
| David G. Pitt | E.J. Pratt: The Truant Years 1882-1927 | Finalist | ||
| Victor L. Russell | Forging a Consensus | Finalist | ||
| 1986 | Morley Callaghan | Our Lady of the Snows | Winner | [19] |
| Robertson Davies | What's Bred in the Bone | Winner | ||
| Neil Bissoondath | Digging Up the Mountains | Finalist | [20] | |
| Rosemary Donegan | Spadina Avenue | Finalist | ||
| James Lemon | Toronto Since 1918: An Illustrated History | Finalist | ||
| Patricia McHugh | Toronto Architecture: A City Guide | Finalist | ||
| 1987 | William Dendy and William Kilbourn | Toronto Observed: Its Architecture, Patrons and History | Winner | [21] |
| John Coldwell Adams | Sir Charles God Damn: The Life of Sir Charles G.D. Roberts | Finalist | [21] | |
| June Callwood | Twelve Weeks in Spring | Finalist | ||
| Lovat Dickson | The Museum Makers: The Story of the Royal Ontario Museum | Finalist | ||
| Michael Filey | Not a One-Horse Town: 125 Years of Toronto and Its Streetcars | Finalist | ||
| Martin O'Malley | Hospital: Life and Death in a Major Medical Centre | Finalist | ||
| 1988 | Michael Ondaatje | In the Skin of a Lion | Winner | [22] |
| Joan Hollobon | The Lion's Tale: A History of the Wellesley Hospital, 1912-1978 | Finalist | [23] | |
| Cyril H. Levitt and William Shaffir | The Riot at Christie Pits | Finalist | ||
| Tom MacDonnell | Never Let Go: The Tragedy of Kristy McFarlane | Finalist | ||
| Anna Porter | Mortal Sins | Finalist | ||
| 1989 | Margaret Atwood | Cat's Eye | Winner | [24] |
| Shirley Faessler | A Basket of Apples | Finalist | [25] | |
| Robert Fulford | Best Seat in the House | Finalist | ||
| Alison Gordon | The Dead Pull Hitter | Finalist | ||
| Michael Kluckner | Toronto The Way It Was | Finalist | ||
| Rick Salutin | A Man of Little Faith | Finalist | ||
| Paul Stuewe | The Storm Below: The Turbulent Life and Times of Hugh Garner | Finalist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Hilary Russell | Double Take: The Story of the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatres | Winner | [26] |
| Guy Vanderhaeghe | Homesick | Winner | ||
| John Ayre | Northrop Frye | Finalist | [27] | |
| Don Bailey | Memories of Margaret | Finalist | ||
| Stuart McLean | The Morningside World of Stuart McLean | Finalist | ||
| M. NourbeSe Philip | Harriet's Daughter | Finalist | ||
| Jack Pollock | Dear M | Finalist | ||
| 1991 | Cary Fagan and Robert MacDonald (eds.) | Streets of Attitude: Toronto Stories | Winner | [28] |
| Cary Fagan | City Hall and Mrs. God: A Passionate Journey Through a Changing Toronto | Finalist | [29] | |
| Mary Jo Leddy | Say to the Darkness, We Beg to Differ | Finalist | ||
| Claire MacKay and Johnny Wales | The Toronto Story | Finalist | ||
| Jocko Thomas | From Police Headquarters | Finalist | ||
| Morley Torgov | St. Farb's Day | Finalist | ||
| Dan Yashinsky | Tales for an Unknown City | Finalist | ||
| 1992 | Katherine Govier | Hearts of Flame | Winner | [30] |
| Margaret Atwood | Wilderness Tips | Finalist | [30] | |
| David Gilmour | How Boys See Girls | Finalist | ||
| Kenneth Oppel and Regolo Ricci | Cosimo Cat | Finalist | ||
| Allan Stratton | Bag Babies | Finalist | ||
| Gregory Ward | The Carpet King | Finalist | ||
| Marianne Zeitlin | Next of Kin | Finalist | ||
| 1993 | Carole Corbeil | Voice-Over | Winner | [31] |
| David Donnell | China Blues | Winner | ||
| Paul Donovan | Paint Cans | Finalist | [32] | |
| Paul Kropp | Ellen/Elena/Luna | Finalist | ||
| Don Ritchie | North Toronto | Finalist | ||
| 1994 | Timothy Findley | Headhunter | Winner | [33] |
| Margaret Atwood | The Robber Bride | Finalist | [34] | |
| Nancy Baker | The Night Inside | Finalist | ||
| Catherine Bush | Minus Time | Finalist | ||
| John Ibbitson | The Night Hazel Came to Town | Finalist | ||
| William Kilbourn | Intimate Grandeur | Finalist | ||
| 1995 | Ezra Schabas | Sir Ernest MacMillan: The Importance of Being Canadian | Winner | [35] |
| Jack Batten | The Leafs: An Anecdotal History of the Toronto Maple Leafs | Finalist | [36] | |
| Cary Fagan | The Animals' Waltz | Finalist | ||
| Eric Wright | Moodie's Tale | Finalist | ||
| 1996 | Rosemary Sullivan | Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen | Winner | [37] |
| Timothy Findley | The Piano Man's Daughter | Finalist | [38] | |
| Robert Fulford | Accidental City | Finalist | ||
| Wayne Grady | Toronto the Wild, Field Notes of an Urban Naturalist | Finalist | ||
| Greg Kramer | The Pursemonger of Fugu | Finalist | ||
| Tim Wynne-Jones | The Maestro | Finalist | ||
| 1997 | Anne Michaels | Fugitive Pieces | Winner | [39] |
| David Eddie | Chump Change | Finalist | [39] | |
| Kevin Irie | The Colour of Eden | Finalist | ||
| Kim Moritsugu | Looks Perfect | Finalist | ||
| Richard Scrimger | Crosstown | Finalist | ||
| 1998 | Helen Humphreys | Leaving Earth | Winner | [40] |
| Carole Corbeil | In the Wings | Finalist | [41] | |
| Joanne Gerber | In the Misleading Absence of Light | Finalist | ||
| Bruce McCall | Thin Ice | Finalist | ||
| Barbara Nichol | Dippers | Finalist | ||
| Antanas Sileika | Buying on Time | Finalist | ||
| 1999 | Richard Outram | Benedict Abroad | Winner | [42] |
| Dennis Bock | Olympia | Finalist | [43] | |
| James Chatto | The Man Who Ate Toronto: Memoirs of a Restaurant Lover | Finalist | ||
| Derek McCormack and Chris Chambers | Wild Mouse | Finalist | ||
| Stuart McLean | Home from the Vinyl Cafe | Finalist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Camilla Gibb | Mouthing the Words | Winner | [44] |
| Jennifer Duncan | Sanctuary and Other Stories | Finalist | [45] | |
| Greg Gatenby | Toronto - A Literary Guide | Finalist | ||
| Conrad E. Heidenreich , Betty Ida Roots, and Donald A. Chant | Betty Ida Roots and Donald A. Chant, Special Places: The Changing Ecosystems of the Toronto Region | Finalist | ||
| Russell Smith | Young Men | Finalist | ||
| 2001 | A.B. McKillop | The Spinster and the Prophet: Florence Deeks, H.G. Wells and the Mystery of the Purloined Past | Winner | [46] |
| Margaret Atwood | The Blind Assassin | Finalist | [47] | |
| Catherine Bush | The Rules of Engagement | Finalist | ||
| Jean Cochrane and Vincenzo Pietropaolo | Kensington | Finalist | ||
| Tessa McWatt | Dragons Cry | Finalist | ||
| 2002 | Sarah Dearing | Courage My Love | Winner | [48] |
| Douglas Bell | Run Over: A Boy, His Mother and An Accident | Finalist | [48] | |
| Jane Lind | Joyce Wieland: Artist on Fire | Finalist | ||
| Erín Moure | Sheep's Vigil by a Fervent Person | Finalist | ||
| Michael Redhill | Martin Sloane | Finalist | ||
| Elizabeth Ruth | Ten Good Seconds of Silence | Finalist | ||
| 2003 | Joe Fiorito | The Song Beneath the Ice | Winner | [49] |
| Dionne Brand | thirsty | Finalist | [50] | |
| Eric McCormack | The Dutch Wife | Finalist | ||
| Judith Merril and Emily Pohl-Weary | Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril | Finalist | ||
| Makeda Silvera | The Heart Does Not Bend | Finalist | ||
| 2004 | Kevin Bazzana | Wondrous Strange: The Life and Art of Glenn Gould | Winner | [51] |
| Kate Taylor | Mme. Proust and the Kosher Kitchen | Winner | ||
| Tom Cruickshank and John de Visser | Old Toronto Houses | Finalist | [52] | |
| Kristen den Hartog | The Perpetual Ending | Finalist | ||
| Aren X. Tulchinsky | The Five Books of Moses Lapinsky | Finalist | ||
| 2005 | David Bezmozgis | Natasha and Other Stories | Winner | [53] |
| Constance Backhouse and Nancy L. Backhouse | The Heiress vs. the Establishment: Mrs. Campbell's Campaign for Legal Justice | Finalist | [53] | |
| Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall | Down to This: Squalor and Splendour in a Big-City Shantytown | Finalist | ||
| Don Coles | Doctor Bloom's Story | Finalist | ||
| Russell Smith | Muriella Pent | Finalist | ||
| 2006 | Dionne Brand | What We All Long For | Winner | [54] |
| Howard Akler | The City Man | Finalist | [55] | |
| Stephen Marche | Raymond and Hannah | Finalist | ||
| Jason McBride and Alana Wilcox (eds.) | uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto | Finalist | ||
| M.G. Vassanji | When She Was Queen | Finalist | ||
| 2007 | Michael Redhill | Consolation | Winner | [56] |
| Sally Gibson | Inside Toronto: Urban Interiors 1880s to 1920s | Finalist | [57] | |
| Geoffrey James | Toronto | Finalist | ||
| Vincent Lam | Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures | Finalist | ||
| Raymond Souster | Uptown Downtown | Finalist | ||
| 2008 | Glen Downie | Loyalty Management | Winner | [58] |
| Elspeth Cameron | And Beauty Answers: The Life of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle | Finalist | [58] | |
| David Chariandy | Soucouyant | Finalist | ||
| Elyse Friedman | Long Story Short | Finalist | ||
| Barbara Gowdy | Helpless | Finalist | ||
| 2009 | Austin Clarke | More | Winner | [59] |
| Anthony De Sa | Barnacle Love | Finalist | [60] | |
| Maggie Helwig | Girls Fall Down | Finalist | ||
| Mark Osbaldeston | Unbuilt Toronto | Finalist | ||
| Charles Wilkins | In the Land of Long Fingernails | Finalist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Mark Sinnett | The Carnivore | Winner | [61] |
| Seán Cullen | The Prince of Neither Here Nor There | Finalist | [62] | |
| Cary Fagan | Valentine's Fall | Finalist | ||
| Lauren Kirshner | Where We Have to Go | Finalist | ||
| Dragan Todorović | Diary of Interrupted Days | Finalist | ||
| 2011 | Rabindranath Maharaj | The Amazing Absorbing Boy | Winner | [63] |
| James FitzGerald | What Disturbs Our Blood | Finalist | [64] | |
| James King | Étienne's Alphabet | Finalist | ||
| Nicholas Ruddock | The Parabolist | Finalist | ||
| Alissa York | Fauna | Finalist | ||
| 2012 | Andrew J. Borkowski | Copernicus Avenue | Winner | [65] |
| Dave Bidini | Writing Gordon Lightfoot: The Man, the Music, and the World in 1972 | Finalist | [66] | |
| Farzana Doctor | Six Metres of Pavement | Finalist | ||
| Michele Landsberg | Writing the Revolution | Finalist | ||
| Suzanne Robertson | Paramita, Little Black | Finalist | ||
| 2013 | Kamal Al-Solaylee | Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes | Winner | [67] |
| Patrick Cummins and Shawn Micallef | Full Frontal T.O. | Finalist | [68] | |
| Kevin Irie | Viewing Tom Thomson, A Minority Report | Finalist | ||
| Aga Maksimowska | Giant | Finalist | ||
| Katrina Onstad | Everybody Has Everything | Finalist | ||
| 2014 | Charlotte Gray | The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Country | Winner | [69] |
| Anthony De Sa | Kicking the Sky | Finalist | [68] | |
| Carrianne Leung | The Wondrous Woo | Finalist | ||
| Nick Saul and Andrea Curtis | The Stop: How the Fight for Good Food Transformed a Community and Inspired a Movement | Finalist | ||
| Shyam Selvadurai | The Hungry Ghosts | Finalist | ||
| 2015 | Emily St. John Mandel | Station Eleven | Winner | [70] |
| André Alexis | Fifteen Dogs | Finalist | [70] | |
| Margaret Atwood | Stone Mattress | Finalist | ||
| Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer | All the Broken Things | Finalist | ||
| Bruce McDougall | The Last Hockey Game | Finalist | ||
| 2016 | Cordelia Strube | On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light | Winner | [71] |
| Howard Akler | Men of Action | Finalist | [71] | |
| Ann Y. K. Choi | Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety | Finalist | ||
| John Lorinc , Michael McClelland, Ellen Scheinberg, and Tatum Taylor | The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant Neighbourhood | Finalist | ||
| Marnie Woodrow | Heyday | Finalist | ||
| 2017 | B. Denham Jolly | In the Black: My Life | Winner | [72] |
| Jen Agg | I Hear She's a Real Bitch | Finalist | [73] | |
| Catherine Hernandez | Scarborough | Finalist | ||
| John Lorinc , Jane Farrow, Stephanie Chambers, Maureen FitzGerald, Tim McCaskell, Rebecka Sheffield, Tatum Taylor, Rahim Thawer, and Ed Jackson | Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer | Finalist | ||
| James Maskalyk | Life on the Ground Floor: Letters from the Edge of Emergency Medicine | Finalist | ||
| 2018 | David Chariandy | Brother | Winner | [74] |
| Dionne Brand | The Unpublished City | Finalist | [75] | |
| Carrianne Leung | That Time I Loved You | Finalist | ||
| Lee Maracle | My Conversations with Canadians | Finalist | ||
| Kerri Sakamoto | Floating City | Finalist | ||
| 2019 | Dionne Brand | Theory | Winner | [76] |
| Mike Barnes | Be With: Letters to a Caregiver | Finalist | [76] | |
| Cary Fagan | The Student | Finalist | ||
| Didier Leclair | This Country of Mine | Finalist | ||
| Ian Williams | Reproduction | Finalist |
| Year | Author | Title | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Desmond Cole | The Skin We're In | Winner | [77] |
| Jean Marc Ah-Sen | In the Beggarly Style of Imitation | Finalist | [78] | |
| Vivian Chong and Georgia Webbe | Dancing after TEN | |||
| Katie Daubs | The Missing Millionaire | |||
| Zalika Reid-Benta | Frying Plantain | |||
| 2021 | Kim Echlin | Speak, Silence | Winner | [79] |
| Catherine Graham | Æther: An Out-of-Body Lyric | Finalist | [80] | |
| Faye Guenther | Swimmers in Winter | |||
| Catherine Hernandez | Crosshairs | |||
| Justin Ling | Missing from the Village | |||
| Rinaldo Walcott | On Property | |||
| 2022 | Sarah Polley | Run Towards the Danger | Winner | [81] |
| Camilla Gibb | The Relatives | Finalist | [81] | |
| Falen Johnson | Two Indians | |||
| H. N. Khan | Wrong Side of the Court | |||
| Adrienne Shadd , Afua Cooper, and Karolyn Smardz Frost | The Underground Railroad | |||
| 2023 | Wanda Nanibush , Georgiana Uhlyarik | Moving the Museum | Winner | [82] |
| Dionne Brand | Nomenclature | Finalist | [83] | |
| Sophie Jai | Wildfires | |||
| Sheila Murray | Finding Edward | |||
| Carolyn Whitzman | Clara at the Door with a Revolver | |||
| 2024 | Maurice Vellekoop | I'm So Glad We Had This Time Together | Winner | [84] |
| Jennilee Austria-Bonifacio | Reuniting with Strangers | Finalist | [85] | |
| Kristen den Hartog | The Roosting Box | |||
| Connie Gault | The Rasmussen Papers | |||
| Paul McLaughlin | The Suicide Magnet: Inside the Battle to Erect a Safety Barrier on Toronto’s Bloor Viaduct | |||
| 2025 | ||||
| Maggie Helwig | Encampment: Resistance, Grace, and an Unhoused Community | Winner | [86] | |
| André Alexis | Other Worlds | Finalist | [87] | |
| Vinh Nguyen | The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse | |||
| Roza Nozari | All the Parts We Exile | |||
| Chika Stacy Oriuwa | Unlike the Rest: A Doctor's Story | |||
| Tanya Talaga | The Knowing | |||