Bridget Canning

Bridget Canning’s debut novel, The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes, was selected as a finalist for the 2017 BMO Winterset Award, the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award, the NL Fiction Award, and was longlisted for the Dublin International Literary Award.

It is currently being adapted to film. Her second novel, Some People’s Children, was a finalist for the 2020 BMO Winterset Award and the Thomas Raddall Award.

Her third book and first short story collection, No One Knows About Us, was published by Breakwater Books in the fall of 2022. It has been named a finalist for the 2023 Alistair MacLeod Award. 

Bridget holds a Masters of Arts in Creative Writing from Memorial University and a Masters of Literacy Education from Mount Saint Vincent University. In 2019, she received the CBC Emerging Artist Award with ArtsNL. She grew up in Highlands, NL and currently lives in St. John’s. 

CV
Publications

Awards & Recognitions

  • Winner of the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award (fiction) for No One Knows about Us

  • Allistair MacLeod Award Finalist for No One Knows about Us

  • Finalist for Best Fiction, Newfoundland and Labrador Books Awards for Some People’s Children

  • Thomas Raddall Fiction Award Finalist for Some People’s Children

    Winterset Finalist for Some People’s Children

  • Nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award for The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes

  • Winner of the “CBC” Emerging Artist Award with ArtsNL

    Finalist for Best Fiction, Newfoundland and Labrador Books Awards for The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes

    Bronze IPPY Award for Best Regional Fiction, Canada East for The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes

    Finalist for the Margaret and John Savage First Book Award (Fiction) for The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes

  • 2017 – Winterset Finalist for The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes

    2017 – Selected as one of five winners of the From Our Dark Side genre film contest

    2017 – Cox and Palmer SPARKS Creative Writing Award

    2016 – Short Fiction Award, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards

    2016 – Fiction Winner for Federation of British Columbia’s 2016 Literary Writes competition

    2016 – Semi-finalist for the Disquiet International Literary Contest, (The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes, novel excerpt)

    2015 – Shortlisted for The Cuffer Prize

    2015 – Selected to apprentice with the Writers’ Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Mentorship Program,

    2015 – Third Prize, Quarter Castle Publishing’s Short Story Contest

    2015 – Honorable Mention, The H. R (Bill) Percy Novel Prize for The Greatest Hits of Wanda Jaynes (formerly titled Impulse)

    2015 – Short Fiction Award, Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards,

    2011/2012 – The Patricia S. Barnes Memorial Scholarship