- Timmons-Oikawa wins the $6,000 grand prize and two-week writing residency for her story Wawa Indian.
CBC Books, CBC’s online home for literary content, together with its partners the Canada Council for the Arts and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, today announced Jenna Timmons-Oikawa of Ottawa as the winner of the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Timmons-Oikawa’s story, Wawa Indian, was selected from nearly 1,900 entries.
As the grand-prize winner, Timmons-Oikawa will receive $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week residency in the Leighton Artist Studios at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and her story has been published on cbcbooks.ca.
The 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize jurors Claire Cameron, Niigaan Sinclair and Teresa Wong said this about Timmons-Oikawa’s story:
“Wawa Indian was a real pleasure to read and a refreshing narrative that took the jury on a dynamic journey. The story is a metaphorical, time-shifting and complicated exploration of identity, contradiction and ‘living through history.’ At the same time, the narrator’s voice is generous and empathic, representing the tenderness of growing up and the tragedy of truth. Bringing together past and present, Wawa Indian plays with language, illustrates the complexity of humanity and offers hope to a world built on harm and cynicism.”
Jenna Timmons-Oikawa said, “Wawa Indian was written from a place of love, resistance, and a wanting to share the often confusing, painful, and the joyous parts of what reclamation has looked like for my family and for me, a daughter of a Sixties Scoop survivor. Writing it felt like I was slicing my heart up into warm pieces of apple pie and feeding them to the page; sometimes messy, but filled with the essence of home.”
The four runners-up for the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize, who will each receive $1,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, are: Brendan Bowles of Toronto for I Told You This Would Be Beautiful; Lana Hall of Toronto for Last night at the Blue Ridge Inn; Kristina Kasparian of Montreal for Bad Faith and Jacky Sawatzky of Lanark, Ont. for Radiation Nights: Voice memos to a friend.
The winner of the Prix du récit Radio-Canada 2026 was also announced: Raphaël Potvin for Points de suture.
For more information on the CBC Literary Prizes, please visit cbcbooks.ca.
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About CBC Books
Home to Canada Reads, Bookends with Mattea Roach, The Next Chapter with Antonio Michael Downing, and the CBC Literary Prizes, CBC Books connects Canadians with books, encouraging a shared love of reading and writing. For book news, reading lists, author interviews and more, visit cbcbooks.ca
About CBC/Radio-Canada
CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada's national public broadcaster. Through our mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain, we play a central role in strengthening Canadian culture. As Canada's trusted news source, we offer a uniquely Canadian perspective on news, current affairs and world affairs. Our distinctively homegrown entertainment and sports programming draws audiences from across the country. Deeply rooted in communities, CBC/Radio-Canada offers diverse content in English, French and eight Indigenous languages: Dëne Sųłıné, Dene Kǝdǝ́, Dene Zhatıé, Eastern Cree, Dinjii Zhuʼ Ginjik, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun and Tłı̨chǫ. We also deliver content in Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Punjabi and Tagalog, as well as both official languages, through Radio Canada International (RCI). We are leading the transformation to meet the needs of Canadians in a digital world.
About Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts mandate is to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. Through its grants, services, prizes, initiatives, and payments, the Canada Council supports a dynamic and diverse arts and literary scene. These activities generate a meaningful cultural, social and economic impact for over 2,000 communities in all parts of the country and beyond. The investments and leadership of the Canada Council help advance public engagement in the arts from coast to coast to coast while also contributing to the international recognition of artists and arts organizations from Canada.
The Council’s Public Lending Right (PLR) program makes annual payments to creators whose works are held in Canadian public libraries.
About Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Founded in 1933, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity is a learning organization built upon an extraordinary legacy of excellence in artistic and creative development. What started as a single course in drama has grown to become the global organization leading in arts, culture, and creativity across dozens of disciplines. From our home on Treaty 7 territory in the stunning Canadian Rocky Mountains, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity aims to inspire everyone who attends our campus – artists, leaders, and thinkers – to unleash their creative potential and realize their unique contribution to society through cross-disciplinary learning opportunities, world-class performances, and public outreach.
