TORONTO — Poet-novelists Canisia Lubrin and Fawn Parker are among the authors shortlisted for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
The Writers’ Trust of Canada announced the finalists for the $60,000 prize on Wednesday.
Lubrin, the Whitby, Ont., writer who won the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2020, made the list for “Code Noir,” her debut work of fiction, which jurors say “expands what is possible in the realm of narrative.”
The series of 59 linked stories is named for the set of historical decrees passed by King Louis XIV outlining the conditions of slavery in the French empire.
Parker, Fredericton’s poet laureate, is in the running for her book “Hi, It’s Me,” about a woman coming to terms with the death of her mother while living in her bedroom and cataloguing her belongings.
Sheung-King, the pen name for Richmond, B.C.- and Hong Kong-based author Aaron Tang, made the list for “Batshit Seven,” about a detached millennial living through the Hong Kong protests.
Finalists also include Edmonton’s Conor Kerr for his novel “Prairie Edge,” a crime thriller about two distant Metis cousins planning an attention-grabbing Land Back protest.
Montreal’s Éric Chacour for “What I Know About You,” translated from French by Pablo Strauss of Quebec City, rounds out the short list. The novel traces the life of an Egyptian doctor from his adolescence in 1960s Cairo to through to Montreal in the 2000s.
The winner of the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize will be announced at the annual Writers’ Trust Awards on Nov. 19.
If a translated work wins, the author will receive $45,000, while $15,000 will go to the translator.
The runners-up receive $5,000.
Both Kerr and Chacour made the long list for the Giller Prize, while Lubrin, Parker and Sheung-King withdrew their names from Giller consideration over lead sponsor Scotiabank’s investment in an Israeli arms manufacturer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 25, 2024.
