thumb|The award was endowed by James A. Michener, who donated the Canadian royalty earnings from his 1988 novel Journey after which the award is named

The Journey Prize (officially called The Writers' Trust of Canada McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize) is a Canadian literary award, presented annually by McClelland and Stewart and the Writers' Trust of Canada for the best short stories published by an emerging writer in a Canadian literary magazine. The award was endowed by James A. Michener, who donated the Canadian royalty earnings from his 1988 novel Journey.

From the award's inception until 2023, a single story was named the winner and received , making it the largest monetary award given in Canada to an up-and-coming writer for a short story or excerpt from a fiction work-in-progress. Since 2023, the award no longer select a single prize winners, and instead all of the 10 writers whose stories are selected for inclusion in the anthology are considered equal winners of the award and receive $1,000 each in prize money.

The prize's winner in 2000, Timothy Taylor, was the first writer ever to have three stories nominated for the award in the same year.

The Journey Prize also publishes an annual anthology of the year's longlisted short stories. Two writers, Andrew MacDonald and David Bergen, have both had a record four total stories selected for inclusion in the annual anthology.

In 2020, the Journey Prize committee announced that the upcoming award would be a special edition devoted exclusively to Black Canadian writers, considering stories published in multiple years. Although the initial report was that the special Black Canadian edition of the award would be presented in 2021 for stories published in 2019, 2020 and 2021,

In 2024, the 25th anniversary of the awards was marked with a special retrospective anthology, edited by Alexander MacLeod and Souvankham Thammavongsa, compiling selected winning and nominated stories from throughout the history of the awards.

Winners and nominees

1980s

{|class="wikitable"

! Year

! Author

! Title

! Ref

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! 1989

|

| "Rapid Transits"

|

|}

1990s

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"

!Year

!Author

! Title

! Ref

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! 1990

|

| "My Father Took a Cake to France"

|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="3" | 1991

|

|

|

|-

|

| "Theories of Grief"

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

| "How Beautiful Upon the Mountains"

|

|-

|

| "Bella's Story"

|

|-

|

| "With the Band"

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

| "Water Margins"

|

|-

|

| "Anomie"

|

|-

|

| "Song of Ascent"

|

|-

|

| "Hand Games"

|

|-

|

| "Bones"

|

|-

|

| "Dreaming Snow"

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

| "Downwind"

|

|}

2000s

{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"

!Year

!Author

!Title

!Ref.

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! 2000

|

| "Doves of Townsend"

|

|-

|

| "Anything That Wiggles"

|

|-

|

| "Little Suitcase"

|

|-

|

| "Listen"

|

|-

|

| "Green Fluorescent Protein"

|

|-

|

| "Hansel and Gretel"

|

|-

|

| "Hush"

|

|-

|

| "Packers and Movers"

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

| "Seven Ways to Chandigarh"

|

|-

|

| "Conjugation"

|

|-

|

| "Cretacea"

|

|-

|

| "Swimming in Zanzibar"

|

|-

|

| "Chilly Girl"

|

|-

|

| "Steaming for Godthab"

|

|-

|

| "Chaperone"

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

| "Mating"

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

| "First-Calf Heifer"

|

|-

|

| "To Have to Wait"

|

|-

|

| "Manning"

|

|-

|

| "How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?"

|

|-

|

| "My Sister Sang"

|

|-

|

| "Monsoon Season"

|

|-

|

| "Last Animal Standing on Gentleman’s Farm"

|

|-

|

| "Red Egg and Ginger"

|

|-

|

| "If I Ever See the Sun"

|

|-

|

| "How the Grizzly Came to Hang in the Royal Oak Hotel"

|

|-

|

| "She Is Water"

|

|-

|

| "Love"

|

|-

|

| "Never Prosper"

|

|-

|

| "Every True Artist"

|

|-

|

|

|

|-

|

| "Hunting"

| rowspan=2|

|-

|

| "Chemical Valley"

|-

! 2021

| colspan=2| No award presented

|

|-

! 2022

| colspan=2| No award presented

|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

! rowspan="10" | 2023

| colspan=2|

| rowspan=10|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|- style="background:#FAEB86"

| colspan=2|

|}

References

  • Journey Prize