Announcing the 2025 Doug Wright Award Nominees
Posted on 01. May, 2025 by Conan Tobias in Uncategorized
It’s been an extra long wait this year, but your patience is about to pay off. Here they are—the nominees of the 21st annual Doug Wright Awards!
The Doug Wright Award for best book
Age 16
Rosena Fung
Annick Press
Bog Myrtle
Sid Sharp
Annick Press
I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together
Maurice Vellekoop
Random House Canada
The Field
Dave Lapp
Conundrum
The Jellyfish
Boum (trans: Robin Lang and Helge Dascher)
Pow Pow Press
The Wendy Award
Walter Scott
Drawn & Quarterly
The Nipper: The Doug Wright Award for emerging talent
Boum
The Jellyfish (trans: Robin Lang and Helge Dascher)
Pow Pow Press
James Collier
Ballpark
Wig Shop & More or Less Books
Rosena Fung
Age 16
Annick Press
Frances V. Reilly
The Harrowing Tales of La Corriveau
Dirty Water Comics
Sid Sharp
Bog Myrtle
Annick Press
The Pigskin Peters: The Doug Wright Award for best small- or micro-press book
Be Yourself! Oh, Not Like That . . .
Emilia Strilchuk
Self-published
Customer Service
Patrick Allaby
Self-published
The Cosmic Con
Ron Kasman
At Bay Press
The Same Water
Richard Fairgray
Richard Sux
The Slenderest of Leashes 1
Xiaoxiao Li
Self-published
The Egghead: The Doug Wright Award for best kids’ book
Alterations
Ray Xu
Union Square Kids
Lost at Windy River: A True Story of Survival
Trina Rathgeber, Alina Pete, Jillian Dolan
Orca Book Publishers
The New Girl
Cassandra Calin
Graphix/Scholastic
The Racc Pack
Stephanie Cooke, Whitney Gardner
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
The Shit Witch
Lis Xu
Self-published
Nominees for the 2025 Doug Wright Awards were selected from entries of books published in the 2024 calendar year. The short list and winners were chosen by a panel of three judges per category.
Fun facts: While it’s been common in recent years for a Nipper nominee to also appear on the best book list, this is the first time three Nipper nominees (Boum, Rosena Fung, and Sid Sharp) are also up for the top award. This also is only the second time a self-published book has been nominated for the Egghead (The Shit Witch by Lis Xu).
Publishers of multiple nominees include Annick Press and Pow Pow Press.
Each winner will receive a small cash prize, and the winner of The Nipper will be awarded a week-long stay at the Valleyview Artist Retreat, in Caledon, Ontario. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees!
Giants of the North: The Canadian Cartooning Hall of Fame
This year’s Giants of the North inductees are: Richard Comely, the co-creator and original publisher of Canada’s iconic superhero Captain Canuck, a character celebrating his fiftieth anniversary in 2025; and Lou Skuce (1886–1951), a newspaper and advertising cartoonist (and so much more) known throughout his career as Canada’s Greatest Cartoonist.
The Ceremony
The 21st annual Doug Wright Awards, with host Jay Odjick, takes place at the historic Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto, on Saturday, June 7th, at 8 p.m. ET. The event will also be livestreamed on YouTube.
Judges
Thanks to this year’s judges: Nathalie Atkinson, Ivana Filipovich, Gareth Gaudin, Andrew Hawthorn, Chris Hutsul, Kate Phillips, Pamela Marie Pierce, Ken Steacy, Diana Tamblyn, Eric Veillette, Stanley Wany, and Lis Xu. Read more about each of our judges on the Doug Wright Awards Web site.
Sponsors
Thanks, as well, to this year’s sponsors: Crowdfundr, Koyama Provides, Valleyview Artist Retreat, Strange Adventures, the Arts & Letters Club, the Beguiling, and 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.
Media Requests
dougwrightawards@gmail.com
21st annual Doug Wright Awards poster by Maurice Vellekoop.
