Now in its 16th year, the C New Critics Award is designed to help identify, develop, and promote the work of emerging art critics, and to encourage creative discourse on current art practices. Writers are invited to submit an 800-1,000 word review of a recent exhibition, performance, publication, or moving image work, by May 30, 2025. The winner will receive $750, editorial support to prepare their article for publication in a future issue of C Magazine, and a two-year subscription. All participants will receive a one-year subscription.

For the purposes of the award, an emerging writer is defined as anyone who has not published more than one piece of writing in a recognized print or online publication, exclusive of student-run journals and magazines. The competition is open to anyone residing in Canada, regardless of citizenship status, and to Canadians living abroad.

Exhibition and performance reviews must address work that occurred no earlier than January 1, 2025, whereas book and moving image work reviews must address work made in the past two years. Submissions must not be previously published, or slated for future publication elsewhere. See our submissions page for more information for writers.

One submission per person. Upload your submission here at award-submission.cmagazine.com. Mail or fax submissions will not be accepted. Please let us know of any accommodation we may provide during the application process. Note that measures are taken to ensure that the identity of entrants remains unknown to adjudicators. If you have questions please direct them to editor@cmagazine.com

Submissions will be assessed by Joy Xiang, Editor at C Magazine, alongside two external jurors to be announced.

Congratulations to Louis-Philippe Savard, winner of the 2024 C New Critics Award! Savard impressed the jury with his review of "The Traces That Remain" at MAI (Montreal, art interculturels), which was curated by eunice bélidor and featured the work of Po B. K. Lomami, Zinnia Naqvi, Shaya Ishaq, and Lan “Florence” Yee. His piece carefully considers the moment of encounter between exhibited works and their publics, with respect to subjectivity and the politics of the archive, and it was published in C159 Mirror Mirror.

We would also like to congratulate Lins Demchuk on being named runner up for her review of Audie Murray's exhibition, "To Make Smoke," at The Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina. The jury noted that her piece also functioned as a meta-commentary on the genre of the exhibition review itself. Demchuk offered a generative critique of the interpretive contexts within which the category known as "Indigenous art" is engaged, without losing sight of the exhibition itself.

Thank you to everyone who participated! We are also very greatful to Nadia Kurd and Alice Ming Wai Jim, who adjudicated the award alongside C Magazine's Associate Editor, Maandeeq Mohamed.