> Zed Book Club / 2024 Amazon Canada First Novel Award Shortlist Announced
The six finalists for the 48th annual Amazon Canada First Novel Award, which were announced on Thursday.
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2024 Amazon Canada First Novel Award Shortlist Announced
The award, which was founded in 1976, offers a $60,000 prize for the winner. / BY Mike Crisolago / May 9th, 2024
Continuing a Canadian literary tradition that dates back to 1976, Amazon Canada and The Walrus announced the shortlist for the 48th annual Amazon Canada First Novel Award on Thursday.
Originally established by the literary publication Books in Canada as the First Novel Award, the prize has previously been awarded to authors who went on to become CanLit luminaries André Alexis, Joan Barfoot, David Bezmozgis, Joseph Boyden, Wayne Johnston, W. P. Kinsella, Joy Kogawa, Anne Michaels, Rohinton Mistry, Michael Ondaatje, Nino Ricci and Madeleine Thien among them.
This year’s shortlist includes six first novels:
Empty Spaces, by Jordan Abel
As the Andes Disappeared, by Caroline Dawson
And Then She Fell, by Alicia Elliott
Tauhou: A Novel, by Kōtuku Titihuia Nuttall
A History of Burning, by Janika Oza
The Berry Pickers, by Amanda Peters
Author Billy-Ray Belcourt, who serves as one of the judges for the prize, said that the shortlisted works offer “a panoramic view of the novel in 21st century Canada. They are searching, formally interesting works concerned with questions of power and survival and history (among others), but they are written in unique and beautiful idioms that suggest fiction in this country is in incredibly capable hands. It was an honour to immerse myself in each of them.”
The Amazon Canada First Novel Award offers a $60,000 prize to the winner, which will be announced on June 6, while each runner up receives $6,000.
Amazon Canada and The Walrus also announced a shortlist for their Youth Short Story prize, awarded to young writers between the ages of 13-17 for a short story of up to 3,000 words. The award comes with a $5,000 cash prize, with the runners up each receiving $500, and the winner will also be announced on June 6.