WINNIPEG, MB-The writing community gathered at the historic Fort Garry Hotel in downtown Winnipeg on April 22, to celebrate writing and honor excellence among its writers and artists.

This year Indigenous authors and illustrators won many of the awards. Among them was Katerena Vermette who was the big winner of the night. She won the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction and the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award for her novel The Break.

David Alexander Robertson won the top prize for his graphic novel Will I See, illustrated by GMB Chomichuk, cover...