The Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize award was created with the intention of bringing literary recognition to, and kick-starting the careers of debut Canadian authors. A $10,000 CAD cash prize will be awarded to a book in each of three categories: Nonfiction, Literary Fiction and Genre Fiction (Speculative Fiction this year). The winners will be announced in mid-to-late June, 2020.
#1 National Bestseller From the Ashes by Jesse Thistle (Simon & Schuster) has been nominated in the nonfiction category! In this extraordinary and inspiring debut memoir, Jesse Thistle, once a high school dropout and now a rising Indigenous scholar, chronicles his life on the streets and how he overcame trauma and addiction to discover the truth about who he is.
Jesse Thistle is Métis-Cree and an Assistant Professor at York University in Toronto. He is a PhD candidate in the History program at York where he is working on theories of intergenerational and historic trauma of the Métis people. Jesse has won the P.E. Trudeau and Vanier doctoral scholarships, and he is a Governor General medalist. Jesse is the author of the Definition of Indigenous Homelessness in Canada published through the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, and his historical research has been published in numerous academic journals, book chapters, and featured on CBC Ideas, CBC Campus, and Unreserved. His writing has also appeared in Toronto Life and The Walrus among others. Jesse is represented by Samantha Haywood.
Frying Plantain by Zalika Reid-Benta (House of Anansi) has been nominated in the Literary Fiction category! Set in a neighbourhood known as “Little Jamaica,” Frying Plantain follows one young girl from elementary school to high school graduation as she navigates the tensions between mothers and daughters, second-generation immigrants and first-generation cultural expectations, and Black identity and predominantly white society.
Zalika Reid-Benta is a Toronto-based writer whose work has appeared on CBC Books, in TOK: Writing the New Toronto, and in Apogee Journal. She received an M.F.A. in fiction from Columbia University in 2014 and is an alumnus of the 2017 Banff Writing Studio. She completed a double major in English Literature and Cinema and a minor in Caribbean Studies at University of Toronto’s Victoria College. She also studied Creative Writing at U of T’s School of Continuing Studies. She is currently working on a young-adult fantasy novel drawing inspiration from Jamaican folklore and Akan spirituality. Zalika is represented by Amy Tompkins.
Crow by Amy Spurway (Goose Lane Books) has been nominated in the category of Literary Fiction! When Stacey Fortune is diagnosed with three highly unpredictable — and inoperable — brain tumours, she abandons the crumbling glamour of her life in Toronto for her mother Effie’s scruffy trailer in rural Cape Breton. Back home, she’s known as Crow, and everybody suspects that her family is cursed. With her future all but sealed, Crow decides to go down in a blaze of unforgettable glory by writing a memoir that will raise eyebrows and drop jaws. She’ll dig up “the dirt” on her family tree, including the supposed curse, and uncover the truth about her mysterious father, who disappeared a month before she was born.
Amy Spurway was born and raised on Cape Breton Island, where, at the age of eleven, she landed her first writing and performing gigs with CBC Radio. She has worked as a freelance writer, communications consultant, editor, and performer. Amy is represented by Marilyn Biderman
To see the full list of nominees, please visit: https://www.kobo.com/news/sixth-annual-rakuten-kobo-emerging-writer-prize-shortlist-announced?fbclid=IwAR1-rKwg7hKtbnrBkPs-PoZass7SxDiAaseyolpCPsfMd0ARYeVqehuXULo