Amazon Announces First Novel Award Shortlist

The Amazon First Novel Award returns this year with an even bigger prize purse: 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, hosted by CBC's Shelagh Rogers, on Wednesday, May 22, at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto. Man Booker Prize–winning novelist Yann Martel will appear as a guest speaker.

This year's panel of judges is composed of Doretta Lau, author of the short-story collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? (2014); 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 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.

The 2019 Amazon Canada First Novel Award Shortlist:

• The Amateurs by Liz Harmer (Viking Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)
• Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard (Invisible Publishing)
• Little Fish by Casey Plett (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq (Knopf Canada)
• Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead (Arsenal Pulp Press)
• Reproduction by Ian Williams (Random House Canada)

Now entering its second year, the Youth Short Story category will also be presented at the award ceremony. Authors between the ages of 13 and 17 were invited to submit a short story under 3,000 words. Chosen by an esteemed panel of judges, the winner in this category will receive $5,000 and a mentorship lunch with editors of The Walrus. 

Congratulations to all the finalists and their publishers!