Quill & Quire Selects Finalists for Amazon.ca First Novel Award

SEATTLE — Amazon.ca and Quill & Quire announced the finalists for the 38th Annual First Novel Award which recognizes the outstanding achievement of Canadian first-time novelists.

“We’re thrilled to again be a part of a program that supports and cultivates Canadian authors,” said Alexandre Gagnon, country manager for Amazon.ca. “The First Novel Award program has an incredible history honouring Canada’s beloved novelists and we look forward to seeing these finalists’ careers flourish and inspire new writers as they join the ranks of First Novel Award success stories.”

Selected by head judge and editor of Quill & Quire, Stuart Woods, the five nominees for the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, listed alphabetically by author, are:

• The Lion Seeker by Kenneth Bonert (Knopf Canada)
• The Eliot Girls by Krista Bridge (Douglas & McIntyre)
• Juanita Wildrose: My True Life by Susan Downe (Pedlar Press)
• Emancipation Day by Wayne Grady (Doubleday Canada)
• Ballistics by D.W. Wilson (Hamish Hamilton Canada)

“The finalists for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award are at diverse stages in their careers as writers, but they share a bold vision for the novel in Canada,” said Woods. “I hope this shortlist will serve as another reminder of the vibrancy of Canadian fiction.”

This year, the winner will be unveiled on April 30 at the annual Amazon.ca First Novel Award ceremony held in Toronto. The winner will be selected from the list of nominees by a panel of judges including Kamal Al-Solaylee, journalist and author of the memoir Intolerable: A Memoir of Extremes; Angie Abdou, author of the novels The Bone Cage and The Canterbury Trail; and Brian Francis, author of the novels Fruit and Natural Order. The winner will receive CAD $7,500 and finalists will receive a CAD $750 gift certificate.

Since 1976, the First Novel Award has helped launch the careers of some of Canada’s most beloved novelists. Previous winners include Michael Ondaatje (1976), Joan Barfoot (1978), Joy Kogawa (1981), W.P. Kinsella (1982), Nino Ricci (1990), Rohinton Mistry (1991), Shyam Selvadurai (1994), Anne Michaels (1996), Margaret Gibson (1997), Andre Alexis (1998), Alan R. Wilson and David Macfarlane (co-winners, 1999), Eva Stachniak (2000), Michael Redhill (2001), Mary Lawson (2002), Michel Basilières (2003), Colin McAdam (2004), Joseph Boyden (2005), Madeleine Thien (2006), Gil Adamson (2007), Joan Thomas (2008), Jessica Grant (2009), Eleanor Catton (2010), David Bezmozgis (2011) and Anakana Schofield (2012).

To find additional information about the finalists and the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, visit www.amazon.ca/firstnovelaward.

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