Congratulations to Emily Urquhart and Wendi Stewart for their nominations for the second annual Kobo Emerging Writer Prize! Emily Urquhart is shortlisted in the Non-Fiction category for BEYOND THE PALE: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes (HarperCollins Canada) and Wendi Stewart has received her nomination in the Literary Fiction category for MEADOWLARK (NeWest Press).
In its second year, the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize is awarded to talented debut authors in three different categories including Non-Fiction, Literary Fiction, and Romance. The three judges in their respective categories are Gail Anderson-Dargatz (Literary Fiction), Camilla Gibb (Non-Fiction), and Lynsay Sands (Romance). The winners in each category will receive $10,000 and will be chosen on or before June 8, 2016.
BEYOND THE PALE: Folklore, Family, and the Mystery of Our Hidden Genes by Emily Urquhart follows Emily’s experience following the birth of her daughter and the unexpected discovery that her daughter was born with a shock of white hair, pale blue eyes, and fair skin and diagnosed with albinism. The author embarks on a three-year journey across North America and parts of Eastern Africa to discover how we explain human differences by examining a wide range of folklore and cultural beliefs.
In MEADOWLARK by Wendi Stewart, when her family’s car goes through the ice on Rainy Lake one cold March day in 1962, six-year-old Rebecca Archer is the only person her father is able to pull from the sinking vehicle. But as Rebecca grows up in a farmhouse haunted by the absence of her mother and baby brother, raised by a man left nearly paralyzed with grief, she wonders if her father really did save her after all. In her debut novel, Wendi Stewart tells the luminous, deeply imagined story of a young woman’s hard-won triumph over heartbreaking personal tragedy.
For further information about the award, please visit https://store.kobobooks.com/p/emergingwritershortlist
Transatlantic would also like to congratulate all the other nominees!