Friends and family of best-selling Canadian author, the late Andrew Pyper, today announced the launch of the $20,000 Andrew Pyper Prize for Genre Fiction, a new annual literary award recognizing a Canadian writer whose body of work demonstrates exceptional achievement in horror, thriller, or speculative fiction. The Pyper Prize honours storytelling of broad imaginative scope that thrills, scares, and entertains, celebrating the literary traditions to which Pyper was a vital contributor. Following Pyper’s passing in early 2025, a group of his friends, family, and colleagues came together with a desire to create a meaningful public tribute that would preserve his legacy, introduce his work to future generations of writers and readers, and celebrate the styles of fiction he loved to read and write.
“Like so many people, we were devastated by the passing of our dear friend Andrew Pyper,” said fellow bestselling author and prize co-founder, Craig Davidson. “Andrew was a brilliant writer, but an even better human being whose infectious sense of joy coloured everything he did, from his personal relationships to his incredible novels, essays and stories. This namesake prize is our effort to recognize and reward writers making great works like Andrew’s that thrill, scare, entertain, and endure.”
Many members of the literary community and Pyper’s family and friends contributed to the Andrew Pyper Prize Fund, making it possible to present a $20,000 prize to deserving Canadian authors for at least seven years. The group is hopeful an endowment can be secured to ensure the continuation of the award beyond this initial period.
Globally, there are relatively few genre fiction awards and even fewer that carry significant monetary prizes. The Pyper Prize will be one of a small number of major international prizes devoted to genre fiction — and the only career-based award of its kind in Canada. The announcement of the prize comes with the posthumous publication of his final novel under the pseudonym Mason Coile, Driven.
Winners will be selected by a jury comprised of professional authors, editors, screenwriters, and industry professionals all of whom are conversant with the genres the Pyper Prize covers. Members of this jury will bring suggestions of worthy recipients to the group to be discussed and voted on each year. In partnership with Writers’ Trust of Canada, the prize will be given for the first time as a special presentation by the Pyper Prize founders at the Writers’ Trust Awards on November 10, 2026
Anyone interested in donating can visit the donations page at Andrew Pyper Prize.