Your new summer reading list just dropped! Yesterday, the 12 titles on the longlist for the 2025 Toronto Book Awards were announced, marking another year of powerful, diverse, Toronto-centric stories. 

Since 1974, The Toronto Book Awards have recognized literary works that are inspired by the city and its residents, helping readers deepen their understanding of Toronto’s communities, cultures and history. Books of all kinds are considered for the prize—from page-turning memoirs to unputdownable fiction to poignant collections of short stories and poems.

Some notable winners in recent years include Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and Theory by Dionne Brand. This year’s prize totals are doubled, with the winning author receiving $20,000, and each of the shortlisted finalists receiving $2,000.

If you’re looking to get lost in a book that hits close to home this summer, these titles are an excellent place to start. Looking for compelling stories rich with personal history? Perhaps pick up Roza Nozari’s All the Parts We Exile, a heartfelt and insightful memoir from a queer Muslim artist, tracing her journey to self-acceptance; or The Knowing, a retelling of Tanya Talaga’s family’s history alongside a deep dive into Canada’s centuries–long oppression of Indigenous peoples. 

Or if anthologies are your jam, Chantal Braganza’s collection of essays Story of Your Mother will challenge your understanding of motherhood, while Widow Fantasies, a short story collection from Hollay Ghadery, explores the lives of subjugated women through the power of fantasies. 

Here is the full 2025 Toronto Book Awards Longlist:

  • Encampment by Maggie Helwig 
  • Unlike The Rest by Chika Stacey Oriuwa 
  • Shadow Price by Farah Ghafoor 
  • The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse by Vinh Nguyen 
  • Other Worlds by André Alexis 
  • Nobody Asked For This by Georgia Toews 
  • Story of Your Mother by Chantal Braganza 
  • All the Parts We Exile by Roza Nozari 
  • Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery 
  • The Knowing by Tanya Talaga 
  • The Immortal Woman by Su Chang 
  • Anne of the Library-on-the-Hill by Catherine Little with Sae Kimura

The shortlist of five finalists will be released in late summer, and the winner of the 2025 Toronto Book Awards will be announced at a gala on October 15. More info here.