Loghan Paylor wins Canada Reads

Loghan Paylor’s *The Cure for Drowning* won CBC’s Canada Reads on April 16, after four days of live debate and elimination votes. (cbc.ca) The novel was defended by Tegan Quin, the JUNO Award-winning musician from Tegan and Sara, and it beat Tyler Hellard’s *Searching for Terry Punchout*, championed by Steve “Dangle” Glynn, in the final round. (cbc.ca) Canada Reads is CBC’s annual “battle of the books,” where five public figures each argue for one Canadian title they think the whole country should read. The 2026 debates ran April 13 to 16 and marked the program’s 25th edition, with Ali Hassan returning as host for a 10th time. (cbc.ca) This year’s theme was “One Book to Build Bridges,” and the shortlist mixed literary fiction, romance, sports writing and speculative fiction. The other finalists were *A Minor Chorus* by Billy-Ray Belcourt, *Foe* by Iain Reid and *It’s Different This Time* by Joss Richard. (cbc.ca; quillandquire.com) Paylor’s book is a debut novel set in 1939 and follows Kit McNair, a non-binary person on a farm in southern Ontario, alongside Rebekah Kromer, a German Canadian newcomer from Montreal. CBC said the novel centers queer and non-binary characters against a Second World War backdrop. (cbc.ca; cbc.ca) In CBC interviews before the debates, Paylor said they wrote the novel to place queer and transgender lives inside Canadian history, after working at a historical reenactment site in British Columbia where they did not see those stories reflected. Quin said the book’s LGBTQ+ storylines felt “organic” and tied to themes that reach beyond one identity group. (cbc.ca) The order of elimination over the week was *Foe*, then *A Minor Chorus*, then *It’s Different This Time*, leaving *The Cure for Drowning* and *Searching for Terry Punchout* for the final vote. CBC carried the debates across radio, television, streaming and YouTube. (cbc.ca) After the win, Paylor said the result felt especially meaningful in a year built around “Building Bridges,” and linked the book’s reception to empathy, libraries, readers and Canadian publishers. The prize gives the novel the kind of national platform Canada Reads has used for 25 years to push books into broader public conversation. (cbc.ca)