This year’s winners of the ReLit Awards, which recognize annually the best independently published novel, book of poetry, and short story collection in Canada, were announced on Feb. 1.

Andrew Kaufman’s The Tiny Wife (Cormorant Books), which follows 13 victims of a bank robbery as they assess their lives, was awarded the ReLit for best novel.

St. John’s playwright Megan Gail Coles won the short-fiction award for her debut collection, Eating Habits of the Chronically Lonesome (Killick Press), which previously won the BMO Winterset Award and the Margaret & John Savage First Book Award.

Sina Queyras, University of Concordia English lecturer and Lemonhound editor, won the poetry category for her collection of grief-related poems, MxT (Coach House Books).

The ReLit Awards were started in 2001 as a less-mainstream alternative to the Giller Prize and Governor General’s Awards. In place of award money, winners receive a handcrafted ring of four dials, each struck with the alphabet.