Five Canadian writers have made the shortlist for the 2024 Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
The annual $60,000 award recognizes the best novel or short story collection by a Canadian author.
The nominees are Éric Chacour for What I Know About You, translated by Pablo Strauss, Conor Kerr for Prairie Edge, Canisia Lubrin for Code Noir, Fawn Parker for Hi, It’s Me and Sheung-King for Batshit Seven.
“Through the minds and incandescent talent of their creators, works of fiction have the power to get us closer to understanding truths about the human experience,” said David Leonard, executive director of Writers’ Trust of Canada, in a press statement.
“These five works are compelling additions to our canon and will long be considered by future readers looking to study the craft of writing.”
This year’s jury is composed of celebrated Canadian fiction writers Saeed Teebi, Joan Thomas and Uchechukwu Peter Umezurike.
The shortlisted writers were selected by the jury from 139 titles. Each finalist will receive $5,000.
The books are available in accessible formats through the Centre for Equitable Library Access.
The 2024 winner will be announced on Nov. 19 at the annual Writers’ Trust Awards ceremony at CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.
The Writers’ Trust of Canada has awarded an annual fiction prize since 1997, and it was renamed in honour of Margaret Atwood and Graeme Gibson in 2021.
Atwood and Gibson were among the five co-founders of the Writers’ Trust of Canada, alongside fellow writers Pierre Berton, Margaret Laurence and David Young.
Neither Atwood nor Gibson were ever nominated for the prize that now bears their name.
The Writers’ Trust of Canada is an organization that supports Canadian writers through literary awards, fellowships, financial grants, mentorships and more.
It gives out 11 prizes in recognition of the year’s best in fiction, nonfiction and short story, as well as mid-career and lifetime achievement awards.
Last year’s winner of the Atwood Gibson Prize was Kai Thomas for his novel In The Upper Country.
Other past winners include katherena vermette, Austin Clarke, Alice Munro, Lawrence Hill, Miriam Toews, André Alexis and David Chariandy.
Get to know the 2024 finalists and their books below.
In What I Know About You, Tarek is on the right path: he’ll be a doctor like his father, marry and have children. But when he falls for his patient’s son, Ali, his life is turned upside-down as he realizes his sexuality against a backdrop of political turmoil in 1960s Cairo. In the 2000s, Tarek is now a doctor in Montreal. When someone begins to write to him and about him, the past that he’s been trying to forget comes back to haunt him.
Chacour is a Montreal-based writer who was born to Egyptian parents and grew up between France and Quebec. In addition to writing, he works in the financial sector. What I Know About You is his first book and was a bestseller in its French edition, winning many awards including the Prix Femina.
Strauss has translated 12 works of fiction, several graphic novels and one screenplay. He was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for translation for The Country Will Bring Us No Peace, Synapses and The Longest Year. His translation of Le plongeur by Stephane Larue called The Dishwasher won the 2020 Amazon First Novel Award. He lives in Quebec City.
What I Know About You is also one of the 12 books on the longlist for 2024 Giller Prize.
Isidore “Ezzy” Desjarlais and Grey Ginther live together in Grey’s uncle’s trailer, passing their time with cribbage and cheap beer. Grey is cynical of what she feels is a lazy and performative activist culture, while Ezzy is simply devoted to his distant cousin. So when Grey concocts a scheme to set a herd of bison loose in downtown Edmonton, Ezzy is along for the ride — one that has devastating, fatal consequences.
Conor Kerr is a Métis/Ukrainian writer who hails from many prairie towns and cities, including Saskatoon. He now lives in Edmonton. A 2022 CBC Books writer to watch, his previous works include the novels Old Gods and Avenue of Champions, which was longlisted for the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and won the ReLit award the same year. Kerr currently teaches creative writing at the University of Alberta.
Prairie Edge is also on the longlist for 2024 Giller Prize.
The Next Chapter18:53Bison roam Downtown Edmonton in Prairie Edge
Métis-Ukrainian author Conor Kerr’s latest novel takes inspiration from a real-life news story. In Prairie Edge, two distant Métis cousins release bison into Edmonton’s urban green spaces in an act of reclamation.
The Code Noir, or the Black Code, was a set of 59 articles decreed by Louis XVI in 1685 which regulated ownership of slaves in all French colonies. In her debut fiction work, Canisia Lubrin reflects on these codes to examine the legacy of enslavement and colonization — and the inherent power of Black resistance.
Lubrin is a Canadian writer, editor and academic who was born in St. Lucia and currently based in Whitby, Ont. Her debut poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis was longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award. Her poetry collection The Dyzgraphxst won the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. It also won the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General’s Literary Prize for poetry.
The Next Chapter16:17Acclaimed Canadian poet and writer Canisia Lubrin feels at home making her fiction debut
<p>Canisia Lubrin is an award-winning Canadian poet, critic and academic. She first gained acclaim for her works of poetry, but always knew she would eventually enter the world of fiction writing. Her experimental novel debut is titled Code Noir — a series of connected stories that range in style and tone to reflect on postcolonial agency and autonomy.</p>
In Hi, It’s Me, Fawn returns to her mother’s farmhouse after her death — one that is also inhabited by four other women with interesting and strange beliefs. As she lives in her mother’s room and tries to figure out what to do with her possessions, she becomes obsessed with archiving her mother’s writing and documents, teaching her more and more about the woman she thought she knew so well.
Fawn Parker is an author and current PhD student at the University of New Brunswick. Her novel What We Both Know was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2022. Her poetry collection Soft Inheritance won the Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize.
Glen “Glue” Wu has a general apathy toward his return to Hong Kong in Batshit Seven. As a lacklustre, weed smoking, hungover ESL teacher, Glue watches passively as Hong Kong falls into conflict around him. He cares only for his sister, trying to marry rich, an on-and-off-again relationship and the memory of a Canadian connection now lost. Government control hardens, thrusting Glue into a journey that ultimately ends in violence.
Sheung-King’s first novel, You Are Eating an Orange. You are Naked., was a finalist for multiple awards, including the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It was also longlisted for Canada Reads 2021. Sheung-Kin splits his time between Canada and China.
The Next Chapter15:21From foul language to QR codes, Sheung-King’s latest novel is an unexpected ode to modern life in Hong Kong
Sheung-King is the pen name of author Aaron Tang. His latest book follows a millennial living in Hong Kong, as he struggles to make sense of his identity and beliefs.