Canada Reads is back. This year, the great Canadian book debate is looking for one book to build bridges.
Stories connect us to different people, places and perspectives. The collection of titles for 2026 showcases the power of storytelling to inspire, connect and grow — together.
On Canada Reads, five Canadian celebrities each select one book that all Canadians should read. They debate their choices over the course of four days, voting to eliminate one every day. The last book standing is the winner.
The 2026 contenders are:
The debates will take place April 13-16.
The Canada Reads 2026 debates will be hosted by Ali Hassan and will broadcast each day at 10 a.m. (11 a.m. AT, 1:30 p.m. NT) on CBC Radio, with a live audio stream and podcast recap on CBC Listen. Watch live at 10 a.m. ET/ 7 a.m. PT on CBC Gem, CBCbooks.ca and YouTube, or at 1 p.m. (2 p.m. AT, 2:30 p.m. NT) on CBC TV. You can tune in live or catch a replay on the platform of your choice.
“If you had told me 10 years ago that I’d be the host of Canada Reads for a decade, I wouldn’t have believed you. I still don’t believe it,” said Hassan in a press statement.
“I’m so grateful and so inspired to be part of this show — a show that continues to challenge people, encourage debate and promote the best of Canadian literature!”
Hassan has been the host of Canada Reads since 2017. He is an actor, touring comedian and host of CBC Radio’s Laugh Out Loud. His TV credits include Odd Squad, Workin’ Moms, Murdoch Mysteries and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. He was nominated for Canadian Screen Awards for his roles in the CBC shows Sort of and Run the Burbs. He is also the author of the comedic memoir Is There Bacon in Heaven?.
Ali Hassan is the host of Canada Reads 2026. (Peter Power/CBC)
The year 2026 marks the 25th edition of Canada Reads.
Canada Reads premiered in 2002. The first winning book was In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje, which was defended by musician Steven Page.
Last year’s winner was Shayla Stonechild, championing A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer.
Other past Canada Reads winners include The Future, by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou, Ducks by Kate Beaton, Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, The Illegal by Lawrence Hill and Ru by Kim Thúy.
Notable Canadians who have been panellists include Jeopardy! star Mattea Roach, who is now the host of Bookends; Olympians including Donovan Bailey, Mark Tewksbury, Clara Hughes and Maggie Mac Neil; actors Devery Jacobs, Paul Sung Hyung-Lee and Jay Baruchel; and many more.
You can see a complete list of past winners and contenders here.
WATCH | The Canada Reads 2026 contenders on CBC’s Commotion:
If you’d like the Canada Reads titles in an accessible format, both CELA and NNELS provide books in audio, braille, print braille and text formats. You can find out which formats are available for each of the books here for CELA and here for NNELS.
The 2026 Canada Reads shortlist features Loghan Paylor, who previously made the longlist for the CBC Nonfiction Prize.
If you’re interested in writing nonfiction, the 2026 CBC Nonfiction Prize is accepting submissions between Jan. 1 and March 1. You can submit your original, unpublished nonfiction for a chance to win $6,000 from the Canada Council for the Arts, a two-week writing residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and have your story published on CBC Books.
Teachers, bookstores, community groups and librarians can order a Canada Reads poster here. Teachers will be able to check out the resources at Curio.ca to bring Canada Reads into classrooms.
This year, Canada Reads is expanding its outreach program with public libraries by offering engagement kits, which may include promotional materials, discussion questions and how-to guides to support libraries in the hosting of a Canada Reads event. If you represent a public library and are interested in receiving an engagement kit, please complete this form.
Learn more about the Canada Reads 2026 contenders below.
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is championing A Minor Chorus by Billy-Ray Belcourt on Canada Reads 2026 (K.C. Armstrong/CBC)
A Minor Chorus is a novel that follows an unnamed narrator who abandons his thesis and goes back to his hometown. While there, he has a series of conversations that bring modern queer and Indigenous experiences into focus.
“The world feels very dark and overwhelming and divided, and it feels like there’s a surplus of anger in this world,” Tailfeathers told CBC Books in an interview.
“For me, the book was this really beautiful retreat in words to my own heart, humanity and spirit. It’s a reminder that we have to speak to each other across the divide. We have to have real conversations with people who might not come from the same background as us — and have an understanding and an acceptance of others.”
It’s a reminder that we have to speak to each other across the divide.- Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers
Billy-Ray Belcourt is a writer and academic from Driftpile Cree Nation in Alberta. Belcourt won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for his first poetry collection, This Wound is a World. He is also the author of the memoir A History of My Brief Body, which was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award for nonfiction, and the short story collection Coexistence. He currently lives in Vancouver, where he teaches creative writing at the University of British Columbia.
Belcourt wrote A Minor Chorus to explore the emotional texture of life around where he grew up in northern Alberta, he told CBC Books in an email.
“I was compelled to depict the kinds of people and lived experiences specific to that region,” he said. “I wanted not to write about a singular character but a whole cast — or chorus — so that I could speak to an array of histories. I wanted, ultimately, to fill a gap in the literary landscape in Canada.”
I wanted, ultimately, to fill a gap in the literary landscape in Canada.- Billy-Ray Belcourt
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers is a writer, director, producer and actor. She is a member of the Kainai First Nation (Blackfoot Confederacy) and is Sámi from Uŋárja (Nesseby, Norway).
She directed the film The Body Remembers When The World Broke Open, co-written with Kathleen Hepburn, the documentary Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy, and three episodes of the limited series Little Bird from Jennifer Podemski and Hannah Moscovitch.
Tailfeathers has had success as an actor as well, winning Canadian Screen Awards for her performances in Danis Goulet’s Night Raiders and Rachel Talalay’s On the Farm. Her other acting credits include Three Pines, based on Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache series, and Sterling Point, the upcoming series from Megan Park.
Tailfeathers has also lent her voice to audiobooks, including real ones by katherena vermette, A Grandmother Begins the Story by Michelle Porter and Empty Spaces by Jordan Abel. A current fellow in the TIFF Writers’ Studio, she is based in Winnipeg.
Steve “Dangle” Glynn is championing Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard on Canada Reads 2026. (K.C. Armstrong/CBC)
In the novel Searching for Terry Punchout, Adam has one final chance to save his sports writing career: a shot at a Sports Illustrated profile of the notorious hockey goon, Terry Punchout. To complicate matters, Terry is Adam’s estranged father, and writing this piece requires Adam to return to his small, Nova Scotia hometown and dredge up old feelings and frustrations.
As he spends more time with family and friends, he begins to realize that the sleepy town and people he left behind deserve more credit than he ever gave them.
“It’s a hockey book that isn’t necessarily a hockey book,” Glynn told CBC Books in an interview. “Hockey is a means to an end in this book.”
“It’s the protagonist building bridges between he and his father. It’s him building bridges between he and his hometown. It’s him building bridges between he and his past.
“What’s really beautiful is it shows that you can still go home; it’s never too late to fix the errors of the past.”
It shows that you can still go home; it’s never too late to fix the errors of the past.”- Steve “Dangle” Glynn
Tyler Hellard grew up in P.E.I., and is now based in Calgary. He writes commercial copy, technology criticism and essays that have appeared in THIS Magazine, The Walrus and on CBC Radio. Searching for Terry Punchout is his debut novel, which was shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writers Prize and the Amazon First Novel Award.
“I really just hope people enjoy reading it,” said Hellard of the novel in an email to CBC Books. “If they can connect with the characters or relate to their relationships in a way that sticks, that’s wonderful, but I just want the experience of reading it to be a pleasant one. “
I just want the experience of reading it to be a pleasant one.- Tyler Hellard
“The books I’ve always loved the most are the ones I can kind of fall into — and when I’m finished I miss being with those characters for a few days. I’d be delighted if my novel does that for anyone.”
Steve “Dangle” Glynn is the host of the Steve Dangle Podcast, a podcast that blends conversations about hockey with the latest in pop culture. A former analyst on Sportsnet, he’s a popular YouTuber and broadcaster.
Glynn also co-founded SDPN, a network of 15 sports podcasts, and captivates audiences with his rants and hot takes.
Based in Scarborough, Ont., he’s written two books: This Team Is Ruining My Life (But I Love Them): How I Became a Professional Hockey Fan and Hockey Rants and Raves.
Tegan Quin is championing The Cure for Drowning by Loghan Paylor on Canada Reads 2026. (K.C. Armstrong/CBC)
The Cure for Drowning is a historical fiction novel that follows Kit McNair, who was born Kathleen to an Irish farming family in Ontario — but they don’t fit in with the expectations set out for them. When Rebekah, a German Canadian doctor’s daughter comes to town, she, Kit and Kit’s older brother, Landon, find themselves in a love triangle which tears their families apart. All three of them separate and join different war efforts but all eventually return home — and are each forced to move on with their lives.
“The thing I’m fixated on the most right now, as I’m thinking about defending the book, is how little [queer] representation we have from that time period in history and how poignant and moving and thrilling it is to imagine it like that,” said Quin in an interview with CBC Books.
“It’s so far and few between that you see that kind of representation. And it is just such a good book and it’s such a great story. I love that it’s a sibling story. I love that it’s a love triangle. I love that it’s queer.”
It’s so far and few between that you see that kind of representation.- Tegan Quin
Loghan Paylor is an Ontario-born author currently based in B.C. They have an MA in creative writing from the University of British Columbia and their short fiction and essays have previously appeared in publications including Room and Prairie Fire. The Cure for Drowning is their debut novel and was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize. Paylor was also longlisted for the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize.
“I wrote this novel partly for my younger self, because it was a story I needed to read but didn’t yet exist,” Paylor told CBC Books in an email.
“I also wrote this for my queer forebears, to show how they lived full, interesting and complex lives that amounted to so much more than a footnote in a history book.
“Most of all, I wrote this novel because I was tired of consuming media in which transgender people were portrayed as a tragic curse of nature, or as half-formed things denied the fullest joys of family, love and connection.
I wanted to read a story where being queer, being gender-non-conforming, and being trans was a source of supernatural strength and courage.- Loghan Paylor
“I wanted to read a story where being queer, being gender-non-conforming, and being trans was a source of supernatural strength and courage.”
Tegan Quin is one half of the pop-indie twin duo Tegan and Sara, who have released 10 studio albums and sold more than a million records over the course of their career.
Tegan and Sara have received multiple Juno and GLAAD awards for their music as well as a Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. They have been nominated for many Grammy and Polaris Prize awards.
Tegan and Sara are also the authors of the memoir High School and the middle-grade graphic novel duology Tegan & Sara: Junior High, illustrated by Tillie Walden. They were executive producers on the television series based on the memoir.
In addition to the music, writing and producing, they also started the Tegan and Sara Foundation to support and invest in 2SLGBTQ+ communities, which earned them the Humanitarian Award at the 2024 Junos.
Quin grew up in Calgary and currently lives in Vancouver.
Josh Dela Cruz is championing Foe by Iain Reid on Canada Reads 2026. (K.C. Armstrong/CBC)
The speculative thriller Foe takes place in an old, isolated farmhouse in the not-so-distant future. The house is inhabited by Junior and his wife Hen and their peaceful lives are interrupted by the arrival of a man in a business suit. Junior has been randomly selected for a scientific program and will be leaving home for the indefinite future, while his wife stays home with a companion.
The shock of this announcement, coupled with his increasingly distant wife and the intruder’s vague explanations, sends Junior in a tailspin as he races to figure out what’s really going on.
For Dela Cruz, Foe is the perfect blend of contemplation and entertainment, he told CBC Books in an interview.
“There’s nothing wrong with being interested in politics or being interested in current events. But sometimes you need a break,” he said.
“I think that you’re going to be able to find that within Foe, where you are able to scratch that itch and discover a world that’s not so different from your own, but also to see other aspects of it where you feel completely satisfied.”
There’s nothing wrong with being interested in politics or being interested in current events. But sometimes you need a break.- Josh Dela Cruz
Iain Reid is the author of memoirs One Bird’s Choice and The Truth About Luck and the novels I’m Thinking of Ending Things and Foe, which was made into a movie starring Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan. His third novel, We Spread, was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction. Reid lives in Kingston, Ont.
“My inspiration for Foe came from thinking about our relationship to AI, technology, space and each other,” said Reid told CBC Books in an email.
“I’d attended an award ceremony and something about the acceptance speech, the way the recipient thanked his wife, and how he implied she was always there to support him, felt unsettling,” said Reid.
“It made me think about the risks we face when we take someone, or something, we hold dear for granted. I started thinking about that type of relationship, where certain narratives are written within the relationship that are confining. That’s what I wanted to write about.”
It made me think about the risks we face when we take someone, or something, we hold dear for granted.- Iain Reid
Josh Dela Cruz is an actor, singer and dancer. Born in the United Arab Emirates and raised in New Jersey, he is now a Canadian permanent resident living in Toronto.
He spent five seasons hosting the Emmy-winning children’s show Blue’s Clues and You and starred in the movie Blue’s Big City Adventure of the same franchise.
His theatre credits include playing Aladdin in Aladdin on Broadway, and most recently, starring in Theatre Group Asia’s production of Into The Woods alongside theatre superstar Lea Salonga.
Dela Cruz helped develop the Tony-winning musical Maybe Happy Ending and has played roles in Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, Fubar, Bull and Time After Time. He has a BFA in musical theatre from Montclair State University.
Morgann Book is championing It’s Different This Time by Joss Richard on Canada Reads 2026. (K.C. Armstrong/CBC)
It’s Different This Time is a romance novel about an actor named June Wood. When her TV show gets cancelled, she’s got no excuse not to follow up on the mysterious email that invites her back to the New York City brownstone where she lived before moving to Los Angeles. The house was left to her and her former roommate, Adam, by the previous owner.
The expensive property will soon be theirs — they just have to live together for four weeks while they finish the paperwork. One catch: June and Adam haven’t spoken in five years and aren’t on great terms.
“It’s a feel-good novel,” Book told CBC Books in an interview. “While you are escaping into this beautiful romance world, you are reading about characters who don’t have their life together.
It’s a feel-good novel.- Morgann Book
“I think [we] can relate to these kinds of people while still feeling really good about this romance and escaping into this beautiful New York setting.”
Joss Richard is a writer, editor and social media director. She’s worked at companies like Reese’s Book Club and Netflix. She created and hosts the podcast Three’s Company, Too and has won a Daytime Emmy Award. Born in Toronto, she lives in Los Angeles. It’s Different This Time is her debut book.
“I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of two people who didn’t get it right, reuniting and seeing if things could be different,” Richard told CBC Books in an email.
“I wondered if time heals, if we really do get wiser, and if love is something that ever really goes away.”
I wondered if time heals, if we really do get wiser, and if love is something that ever really goes away.- Joss Richard
Morgann Book is one of Canada’s biggest book content creators, with 2.6 million followers on TikTok and nearly 140,000 on Instagram.
As someone who loves great stories, recommending books and good conversation, she hosts the podcast Off The Shelf where she interviews authors about what drives their work.
Book is also the founder of Bookish Media, a production company that develops and creates book-related media. She curates The Bookish Club, a global monthly book club that brings together readers across the world.
Book was also recently announced as part of Reese Witherspoon’s 2026 talent incubator.