As a registered charity, the PEI Writers Guild and the Island Literary Awards Committee have continually strived to raise funds in order to create new ILA categories that better represent and recognize the diverse voices of Islanders. In 2020 the ILA's introduced the Scott Parsons Literary Award, recognizing writing contributed by a member of PEI’s BIPOC communities, as well as a Newcomers to Canada Award.

In 2022, the ILA’s continued to focus on celebrating Island voices by introducing new awards recognizing PEI’s Francophone communities, as well as our 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

This year, the PEI Writers' Guild is excited to be making our identity-based award categories barrier-free. This means that if you identify as Indigenous, Black, Francophone, 2SLGBTQ+, or under the criteria described under the Newcomer to Canada Award, you can apply for those awards at no additional cost to you.