The Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 City of Regina Writing Award is Courtney Bates-Hardy for her poetry collection “We Want to Live Like Trees”.
This year’s runners-up are Suzy Krause for her novel “You Won’t Believe Your Eyes” and Gordon Portman for his play “Table in the Shade”.
Our heartiest congratulations to all three! Submissions were adjudicated anonymously by judges Finnian Burnett and Molly Cross-Blanchard.
The 2025 City of Regina Writing Award Show will be held on Thursday, May 29, at 7:00 pm at Hotel Saskatchewan (2125 Victoria Avenue). The Award show will feature readings by winner Courtney Bates-Hardy and runners-up Gordon Portman and Suzy Krause, as well as a celebratory reception. This is a free event open to the public.
The award is sponsored by the City of Regina and administered by the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild.
2025 Award Winner Courtney Bates-Hardy
Courtney Bates-Hardy is the author of Anatomical Venus (Radiant Press, 2024), House of Mystery (2016), and a chapbook, Sea Foam (JackPine Press, 2013). Anatomical Venus is shortlisted for two Saskatchewan Book Awards. Bates-Hardy’s poems have been featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2021 and nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is queer and disabled, and one-quarter of a writing group called The Pain Poets.
2025 Runners-Up
Suzy Krause is the bestselling author of Sorry I Missed You, Valencia and Valentine, and I Think We’ve Been Here Before. She grew up on a little farm in rural Saskatchewan and now lives in Regina, where she writes novels inspired by crappy jobs, creepy houses, personal metaphorical apocalypses, and favourite songs. Her work has been translated into Russian and Estonian.
Gordon Portman has been a professional writer and teacher for more than thirty-five years. For much of that time, his work has primarily been associated with theatre; however, for the past fifteen+ years he has been a creative writing instructor / mentor at Brandon University, where he introduced students to a range of techniques associated with all four of the main writing disciplines – non-fiction, fiction, drama, and poetry. He is a recipient of several creation / production grants; has twice been shortlisted for the CBC Literary Prize in non-fiction (most recently in 2024), and most recently has been published in the anthology This Is Beyond.
Bios of Jurors
Finnian Burnett lives in a small town in BC. They write about intersections of identity—mental health, gender identity, and body positivity. Finnian is a 2023 Canada Council for the Arts grant recipient, a 2023 CBC finalist, and a 2024 Pushcart Nominee. Finnian has two flash collections, The Clothes Make the Man and The Price of Cookies and has appeared in many Canadian literary magazines and collections. Finnian is represented by Stacey Kondla of The Rights Factory.
Molly Cross-Blanchard is a white and Métis writer and editor born on Treaty 3 (Fort Frances, ON), raised on Treaty 6 (Prince Albert, SK), and living on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, c.k.a. Vancouver. Her debut book of poetry, Exhibitionist, was published with Coach House Books (2021), and she's working on a collection of short fiction about THW ("Truly Horrible Women''). She teaches creative writing and Indigenous studies at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.
