2019 Amazon First Novel Award Shortlist
Amazon Canada and The Walrus today announced the nominees for the 43rd annual First Novel Award (amazon.ca/firstnovelaward), which honours the achievements of Canadian authors and their debut novels. This year, the winner and finalists will be awarded larger prizes than in previous years: the winner will receive $60,000 and each of the six finalists will receive $6,000 in prize money. The winner will be announced at the annual Amazon Canada First Novel Award ceremony on Wednesday, May 22, at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. The event will be hosted by the CBC's Shelagh Rogers and will feature guest speaker and Man Booker Prize–winning novelist Yann Martel. This year's panel of judges is composed of Diane Schoemperlen, a Governor General Award–winning author of 14 books, including This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications (2016), which was shortlisted for the 2017 RBC Taylor Prize; Dimitri Nasrallah, winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation's Hugh MacLennan and First Book Prizes and author of three novels, most recently The Bleeds (2018); and Doretta Lau, author of the short-story collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? (2014).
