Commonwealth Prize Shortlist Announced

Three Canadian writers are up for the Commonwealth Book Prize! Each shortlisted writer has the potential to become a regional winner on May 22, 2012. The five regions consist of Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, Caribbean and the Pacific. The overall prize winner will be announced at the Hay Festival on June 8, 2012.

Here's the shortlist for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize!

Canada

• The Town that Drowned (Goose Lane Editions), Riel Nason
• Dancing Lessons (Cormorant Books), Olive Senior
• The Sentimentalists (William Heinemann), Johanna Skibsrud

International

• The Wandering Falcon (Hamish Hamilton), Jamil Ahmad
• Patchwork (Penguin Books, South Africa), Ellen Banda-Aaku
• Rebirth: a novel (Penguin Books India), Jahnavi Barua
• The Sly Company of People Who Care (Picador), Rahul Bhattacharya
• The Ottoman Motel (The Text Publishing Company), Christopher Currie
• A Cupboard Full of Coats (Oneworld Publications), Yvvette Edwards
• The Book of Answers, (HarperCollins India) CY Gopinath
• Jubilee (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), Shelley Harris
• The Dancing and the Death on Lemon Street (Jacana Media), Denis Hirson
• The Vanishing Act (The Text Publishing Company), Mette Jakobsen
• Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew (Random House India), Shehan Karunatilaka
• Purple Threads (University of Queensland Press),Jeanine Leane
• Sweetheart (Peepal Tree Press), Alecia McKenzie
• The Dubious Salvation of Jack V (Jonathan Cape), Jacques Strauss
• Me and Mr Booker (The Text Publishing Company), Cory Taylor
• Pao (Bloomsbury), Kerry Young

For more information, visit the Commonwealth Writers website.