Nominees of the 18th annual Doug Wright Awards

 From the Doug Wright Awards. 

The Doug Wright Awards is pleased to announce the nominees for its 18th annual honours, selected from works published by Canadian creators during the 2021 calendar year.
The Doug Wright Award for best book

The Shiatsung Project, Brigitte Archambault, Conundrum Press
Cyclopedia Exotica, Aminder Dhaliwal, Drawn & Quarterly
The Rock From the Sky, Jon Klassen, Candlewick Press
Stone Fruit, Lee Lai, Fantagraphics
Fictional Father, Joe Ollmann, Drawn & Quarterly

The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for emerging talent

Sofia Alarcon, Endsickness No. 1, Self-published
Sami Alwani, The Pleasure of the Text, Conundrum Press
Brigitte Archambault, The Shiatsung Project, Conundrum Press
Alexander Laird, Sleemor Gank: Burg Land No. 1, Self-published
Kyle Simmers and Ryan Danny Owen, Pass Me By: Gone Fishin’ and Pass Me By: Electric Vice, Renegade Arts Entertainment

The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for best small- or micro-press book

Endsickness No. 1, Sofia Alarcon, Self-published
Fruit/Soil, Kim Edgar, Moniker Press
The Northern Gaze, edited by Kim Edgar, Hecate Press
Sleemor Gank: Burg Land No. 1, Alexander Laird, Self-published
Dwellings No. 2, Jay Stephens, Black Eye Books

The Egghead: The Doug Wright Award for best kids’ book

Simon and Chester: Super Sleepover!, Cale Atkinson, Tundra Books
Otter Lagoon, Mike Deas and Nancy Deas, Orca Book Publishers
Living with Viola, Rosena Fung, Annick Press
Shirley and Jamilla’s Big Fall, Gillian Goerz, Dial Books for Young Readers
Over the Shop, JonArno Lawson and Qin Leng, Candlewick Press
Etty Darwin and the Four Pebble Problem, Lauren Soley, Tundra Books

Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame

This year’s Giants of the North inductee is Margaret Bloy Graham (1921–2015), a children’s book creator, best known for her work on Harry the Dirty Dog.

This year, 153 entries by Canadian authors and artists were submitted to the Doug Wright Awards in four categories. Nominees and winners were chosen by a panel of three judges per category. Books from approximately 40 publishers were submitted, along with more than three dozen self-published works.

Creators with multiple nominations include Sofia Alarcon, Brigitte Archambault and Alexander Laird.

Publishers of multiple nominees include Candlewick Press, Conundrum Press, Drawn & Quarterly, and Tundra Books.

Each winner will receive a small cash prize, and the winner of The Nipper will be awarded a week-long retreat at the Valleyview Artist Retreat, in Caledon, Ontario. 

The Ceremony

The Doug Wright Awards returns live and in-person for 2022, with host Richard Crouse, in the open air of Harold Town Park, 725 Church Street (on the north side of Church, directly behind the Toronto Reference Library), on Saturday, June 18th, at 7 p.m. ET. 

The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube. 

The Doug Wright Awards is a featured event of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

About the Doug Wright Awards

The Doug Wright Awards were founded in 2005 to celebrate excellence in the field of Canadian comics. The awards are named for Doug Wright (1917–1983), the creator of the long-running strip Doug Wright’s Family (a.k.a. Nipper), one of the most widely read and loved Canadian comics of the twentieth century.