This morning at Toronto's Ben McNally Books, the Writers' Trust of Canada announced the shortlists for two of the most prestigious fiction prizes in the country.
The Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize awards $25,000 to the finest novel or collection of short fiction published in the previous year. This year's jury consisted of Aislinn Hunter, Shani Mootoo and Richard Wagamese, with Ms. Mootoo representing the jury at the prize announcement.
The Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize is a unique short fiction prize. Magazines and journals across Canada select their favourite short stories published over the past year, and the Journey Prize jury then chooses twelve of those stories to be included in the annual Journey Prize Stories anthology. They then narrow the list further to a three story shortlist, and finally award $10,000 to a single winner, with an additional $2,000 prize going to the magazine that originally published the piece. This year's stories were selected by Anthony De Sa, Tanis Rideout and Carrie Snyder.
This year's lists are interesting, with two books in common with the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist (the crossover books are André Alexis' Fifteen Dogs and Russell Smith's Confidence). Small presses make a good showing, with three of the five shortlisted titles coming from indie houses Coach House, TAP Books (under the umbrella of Dundurn Press) and Biblioasis.
The 2015 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize Shortlist:
André Alexis for Fifteen Dogs (Coach House Books)
Elizabeth Hay for His Whole Life (McClelland & Stewart)
Pamela Mordecai for Red Jacket (TAP Books)
Russell Smith for Confidence (Biblioasis)
John Vaillant for The Jaguar's Children (Knopf Canada)
The 2015 Writers' Trust/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize Shortlist:
Emily Bossé for "Last Animal Standing on Gentleman's Farm", originally published in The Fiddlehead
Deirdre Dore for "The Wise Baby", originally published in Geist
Anna Ling Kaye for "Red Egg and Ginger", originally published in Prairie Fire
The winners of both prizes will be announced at the Writers' Trust Awards ceremony, on November 3, 2015.
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