Amazon Canada First Novel Award Explained

The Amazon Canada First Novel Award, formerly the Amazon.ca First Novel Award and the Books in Canada First Novel Award, is a Canadian literary award, co-presented by Amazon.ca and The Walrus to the best first novel in English published the previous year by a citizen or resident of Canada.^[1] It has been awarded since 1976.^[1]

The First Novel Award was founded by the literary magazine Books in Canada.^[1] Between 1976 and 1994, the award was sponsored by SmithBooks. During this period, the award was known as the SmithBooks/Books in Canada First Novel Award.^[1] When SmithBooks was acquired by Chapters, it became the Chapters/Books in Canada First Novel Award.^[1]

The award was reorganized when Books in Canada was acquired by Adrian and Olga Stein in 1995. The Steins retained a first novel editor, introduced a comprehensive first novel review program, and formalized the adjudication process.

Amazon first signed on as a sponsor of the award in 2001,^[2] with the award presented as the amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award through the 2000s. Full administration of the award was taken over by Amazon in 2009 and its name was changed to the Amazon.ca First Novel Award. The Amazon.com arrangement saw the prize award initially doubled to $10,000, and then increased to its current amount of $40,000, with shortlisted finalists each receiving over $6,000.

Winners and nominees

At different times in its history, the award has been presented early in the year for works published in the preceding year, late in the year for works published in the same year as the presentation, or mid-year for an eligibility period that straddled parts of both years. For clarity, the list below is organized by the year of presentation rather than the year of publication eligibility.

1970s

Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners and finalists, 1977-1979!Year!Author!Title!Result!Ref.

1977			Winner	[3]
		Coming Through Slaughter
		Eileen McCullough	Finalist	[4]
		Middlewatch
		Small Ceremonies
1978		Sandbars	Winner	[5]
		Sidehill Gouger	Finalist	[6]
		Child of the Morning
		I Do Remember the Fall
1979		Abra	Winner
			Finalist	[7]
		Disneyland, Please
		Parade on an Empty Street
		Hold Fast

1980s

Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners and finalists, 1980-1989!Year!Author!Title!Result!Ref.

1980		Lunar Attractions	Winner	[8]
		Mrs. Job	Finalist
		Peckertracks
		Everything in the Window
		Random Descent
		Crossings
1981		Gentle Sinners	Winner	[9]
		Laughing War	Finalist
		Seahorse
		Fat Woman
1982		Obasan	Winner	[10]
		Streethearts	Finalist	[11]
		Final Decree
		Sunday's Child
		Always Tip the Dealer
1983		Shoeless Joe	Winner	[12]
		Coming for to Carry	Finalist	[13]
		Blue
		Preparing for Sabbath
1984		Willie: A Romance	Winner
		Tolerable Levels of Violence	Finalist	[14]
		Not Working
		Figures on a Wharf
1985		Perdue, or How the West Was Lost	Winner	[15]
		Country of the Heart	Finalist	[16]
		Precious
		Dazzled
		I Hear the Reaper's Song
1986			Winner	[17]
			Finalist	[18]
		Master and Maid
		Wales' Work
1987			Winner	[19]
		Momentum	Finalist	[20]
		Back on Tuesday
		Downfall People
1988			Winner	[21]
		Fire Eyes	Finalist	[22]
		Squatters' Island
		Selakhi
1989			Winner	[23]
			Finalist	[24]
		Electrical Storms
		Constellations
		January, February, June or July

1990s

Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners and finalists, 1990-1999!Year!Author!Title!Result!Ref.

1990			Winner	[25]
		To All Appearances a Lady	Finalist	[26]
		Madeleine and the Angel
		Distant Relations
1991		Lives of the Saints	Winner	[27]
		Deadly Appearances	Finalist	[28]
		Grace Lake
		Homework
		Sniper's Moon
1992		Such a Long Journey	Winner	[29]
			Finalist	[30]
		Woyzeck's Head
		Kleinberg
		News From a Foreign Country Came
1993			Winner	[31]
		Amnesia	Finalist	[32]
		Voice-Over
		Brud
		Spin Dry
1994		Losing Eddie	Winner	[33]
		Minus Time	Finalist	[34]
		Blow Up the Trumpet in the New Moon
		If I Knew I'd Tell You
1995		Funny Boy	Winner	[35]
		Kitchen Music	Finalist	[36]
		In the Language of Love
		How Insensitive
		Alex & Zee
1996		Popular Anatomy	Winner	[37]
		Highways and Dancehalls	Finalist	[38]
		When Fox Is a Thousand
		Daughters of the Red Land
1997		Fugitive Pieces	Winner	[39]
			Finalist	[40]
		Fall on Your Knees
		Self
		Cereus Blooms at Night
1998		Opium Dreams	Winner	[41]
		Elephant Winter	Finalist	[42]
		Homer in Flight
		Angel Falls
1999		Childhood	Winner	[43]
			Finalist	[44]
		Kiss of the Fur Queen
		Beneath That Starry Place

2000s

Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners and finalists, 2000-2009!Year!Author!Title!Result!Ref.

2000		Summer Gone	Winner	[45]
		Before the Flood
		No Great Mischief	Finalist	[46]
		Kit's Law
		Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask
2001		Necessary Lies	Winner	[47]
		Finnie Walsh	Finalist	[48]
		Alice, I Think
		This Place Called Absence
2002		Martin Sloane	Winner	[49]
			Finalist
		River Thieves
		Open Arms
		Strong Hollow
		Ten Good Seconds of Silence
2003		Crow Lake	Winner	[50]
		Heave	Finalist	[51]
		Stay
		Cumberland
		Spelling Mississippi
2004		Black Bird	Winner	[52]
			Finalist	[53]
		Kalyna's Song
		Ten Thousand Lovers
		Blue Becomes You
2005		Some Great Thing	Winner	[54]
		Sunday Afternoon	Finalist	[55]
		Skinny
		What's Remembered
		Bishop's Road
2006		Three Day Road	Winner	[56]
			Finalist	[57]
		Gotta Find Me an Angel
2007		Certainty	Winner	[58]
			Finalist	[59]
		Stolen
		Lullabies for Little Criminals
		Empress of Asia
2008			Winner	[60]
		Soucouyant	Finalist	[61]
		Big White Knuckles
2009		Reading by Lightning	Winner	[62]
		Chase & Haven	Finalist	[63]
		Stunt
		Red Dog, Red Dog

2010s

Amazon.ca First Novel Award winners and finalists, 2010-2019!Year!Author!Title!Result!Ref.

2010		Come, Thou Tortoise	Winner	[64]
		No Place Strange	Finalist	[65]
		Goya's Dog
		Diary of Interrupted Days
		Daniel O'Thunder
2011			Winner	[66]
		Ghosted	Finalist	[67]
		Ilustrado
		Cool Water
		Annabel
2012			Winner	[68]
			Finalist	[69]
		Autobiography of Childhood
		Dancing Lessons
		Touch
2013		Malarky	Winner	[70]
		Y	Finalist	[71]
		People Park
		Ru
2014		Emancipation Day	Winner	[72]
			Finalist	[73]
		Juanita Wildrose: My True Life
		Ballistics
2015		All True Not a Lie in It	Winner	[74]
		Etta and Otto and Russell and James	Finalist	[75]
		Us Conductors
		New Tab
		Pedal
2016		13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl	Winner	[76]
		Book of Sands	Finalist	[77]
		Do You Think This Is Strange?
		Seep
		Backspring
2017			Winner	[78]
		White Elephant	Finalist	[79]
		Accordéon
		So Much Love
		Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains
2018			Winner	[80]
			Finalist	[81]
		American War
		Dazzle Patterns
2019		Little Fish	Winner	[82]
			Finalist	[83]
		Searching for Terry Punchout
		Split Tooth
		Jonny Appleseed
		Reproduction

2020s

Amazon Canada First Novel Award winners and finalists, 2020–present!Year!Author!Title!Result!Ref.

2020	(tr. Pablo Strauss)		Winner	[84]
			Finalist
		Going Dutch
		Mooncalves
		Aria
		When We Were Vikings
2021		Five Little Indians	Winner	[85]
		You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked.	Finalist	[86]
		Butter Honey Pig Bread
		Happy Hour
		Gutter Child
		Vanishing Monuments
2022		Ghost Forest	Winner	[87]
		Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead	Finalist	[88]
		Probably Ruby
		All the Quiet Places
		Avenue of Champions
		We, Jane
2023		The Island of Forgetting	Winner	[89]
		A Minor Chorus	Finalist	[90]
		In the City of Pigs
		Bad Cree
		Hollow Bamboo
		In the Upper Country
2024		And Then She Fell	Winner	[91]
		Empty Spaces	Finalist	[92]
		As the Andes Disappeared
		Tauhou
		A History of Burning
		The Berry Pickers

External links

• First Novel Award at Amazon.ca

Notes and References

1. "First Novel Award helps write authors' careers: All awards are crapshoots, but for a prize that recognizes writers with little or no track record, a surprising number become successful". The Globe and Mail, May 21, 2016.
2. "Amazon.com deal saves Canadian literary magazine from folding". Cape Breton Post, January 18, 2001.
3. "New corporate outlook on helping writers: more cash, fewer strings". The Globe and Mail, June 7, 1977.
4. "Two writers to share award for first novels in Canada". Ottawa Citizen, March 29, 1977.
5. "And the winner is..." The Globe and Mail, April 1, 1978.
6. Burt Heward, "'Best' novel tells of life in the Valley". Ottawa Citizen, April 5, 1978.
7. William French, "Book price probe is needed". The Globe and Mail, March 27, 1979.
8. "First-novel-award prize is increased to $5,000". The Globe and Mail, January 20, 1988.
9. Pat Barclay, "Gentle Sinners, by W. D. Valgardson". Victoria Times-Colonist, April 17, 1981.
10. "Kogawa wins $1,000 award". The Globe and Mail, April 2, 1982.
11. "Note Book". Kingston Whig-Standard, March 13, 1982.
12. "The timeless metaphors of baseball". The Globe and Mail, November 17, 1984.
13. Beverley Slopen, "First novels". Montreal Gazette, March 12, 1983.
14. Kenneth McGoogan, "Book battle becomes a war" Calgary Herald, March 4, 1984.
15. "Writer from Regina wins book award". The Globe and Mail, March 29, 1985.
16. Kenneth McGoogan, "West spawns top novels". Calgary Herald, March 10, 1985.
17. "Lives in isolation". The Globe and Mail, January 9, 1988.
18. Larry Scanlan, "Magazine". Kingston Whig-Standard, April 5, 1986.
19. "Lawrence captures $3,000 literary prize". The Globe and Mail, April 3, 1987.
20. "Short list announced for first novel award". The Globe and Mail, March 12, 1987.
21. "BC woman (Quednau) wins first-novel award". Winnipeg Free Press, April 3, 1998.
22. "Finalists announced in first novel contest". Toronto Star, March 1, 1988.
23. "Salutin wins $5,000 prize". Toronto Star, March 30, 1989.
24. Burt Heward, "First-novel short list announced". Ottawa Citizen, March 4, 1989.
25. "Winnipeg author wins first-novel prize". Ottawa Citizen, March 30, 1990.
26. Lynne Van Luven, "Edmontonians among finalists for first-novel award". Edmonton Journal, March 6, 1990.
27. "Ricci novel wins second big prize". Calgary Herald, March 26, 1991.
28. "First novel award names 6 finalists". Toronto Star, February 20, 1991.
29. "Mistry novel earns Smith award". Halifax Daily News, March 27, 1992.
30. "Finalists named for book award". The Globe and Mail, February 25, 1992.
31. "Story from 'fascinating' journal wins Steffler first novel award". Halifax Daily News, March 27, 1993.
32. "Finalists announced for first novel award". The Globe and Mail, March 4, 1993.
33. "New Brunswicker wins book award". Calgary Herald, March 25, 1994.
34. "Five authors nominated for first-novel award". Montreal Gazette, March 5, 1994.
35. "Funny Boy author wins $5,000 SmithBooks prize". Toronto Star, March 22, 1995.
36. Candace Fertile, "And this one's just too cool for words". Calgary Herald, March 4, 1995.
37. "Fraser wins First Novel prize". Toronto Star, April 26, 1996.
38. "Short list for 1st novel announced". The Globe and Mail, March 1, 1996.
39. "Anne Michaels wins $5,000 first novel prize". Edmonton Journal, May 29, 1997.
40. "Six authors in running for first-novel award". Ottawa Citizen, March 29, 1997.
41. "Opium Dreams wins award". Ottawa Citizen, April 25, 1998.
42. "County native nominated". Windsor Star, March 7, 1998.
43. "Andre Alexis wins first novel award". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, April 30, 1999.
44. "Highway nominated". National Post, April 1, 1999.
45. "Macfarlane, Wilson share award for first novel". The Globe and Mail, October 13, 2000.
46. Bob Blakey, "Calgarian in hunt for first-time novelist award". Calgary Herald, September 8, 2000.
47. "Necessary Lies wins first-novel award". The Globe and Mail, September 26, 2001.
48. "2001 First novel award: Three Vancouver writers up for $5,000 prize". Vancouver Sun, July 21, 2001.
49. "Michael Redhill picks up first-novel honours". Edmonton Journal, October 2, 2002.
50. "Mary Lawson wins first novel award for Crow Lake". National Post, October 9, 2003.
51. Rebecca Caldwell, "Lawson wins first-novel award". The Globe and Mail, October 9, 2003.
52. "Basilieres wins first novel award". The Telegram, October 17, 2004.
53. "John Bemrose, Edeet Ravel are among finalists for First Novel Award". Welland Tribune, April 21, 2004.
54. "Montreal's Colin McAdam wins First Novel Award". The Globe and Mail, October 7, 2005.
55. "Debut fiction: 14 writers make first impressions". Ottawa Citizen, June 5, 2005.
56. "Joseph Boyden wins Amazon first-novel award". The Globe and Mail, October 12, 2006.
57. "Authors short-listed for First Novel Award". The Telegram, July 2, 2006.
58. "Quebec City's Thien wins First Novel Award". Montreal Gazette, October 9, 2007.
59. "'First Novel' finalists named". Prince George Citizen, June 15, 2007.
60. "Adamson wins First Novel Award". Telegraph-Journal, October 2, 2008.
61. "Finalists for First Novel Award announced". Moose Jaw Times-Herald, June 11, 2008.
62. "Thomas wins Amazon First Novel Award". The Globe and Mail, September 25, 2009.
63. "Saanich writer Patrick Lane nominated for first-novel honour". Victoria Times-Colonist, June 17, 2009.
64. "St. John's writer wins first-novel award". Edmonton Journal, May 2, 2010.
65. "Ian Weir, Annabel Lyon among finalists for Amazon First Novel Award". National Post, March 5, 2010.
66. "Eleanor Catton of London, Ont., wins $7,500 Amazon.ca First Novel Award". Canadian Press, April 28, 2011.
67. Web site: Medley . Mark . February 22, 2011 . Nominees for Amazon.ca First Novel Award announced . . en-CA.
68. "Toronto writer wins first-novel prize". Victoria Times-Colonist, April 29, 2012.
69. "Shortlisted this week". National Post, February 25, 2012.
70. "Vancouver author wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award". Ottawa Citizen, April 26, 2013.
71. "Kim Thuy's celebrated 'Ru' among finalists for Amazon.ca First Novel Award". Canadian Press, February 27, 2013.
72. "Seasoned author's debut novel a winner". Winnipeg Free Press, May 10, 2014.
73. Web site: April 30, 2014 . Windsor, Ont., writer Wayne Grady wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award . May 28, 2023 . CBC News.
74. News: May 21, 2015 . Alix Hawley's All True Not A Lie In It wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award . .
75. François Lauzon, "Sean Michaels' Us Conductors in running for Amazon prize". Montreal Gazette, April 2, 2015.
76. News: Medley . Mark . 2016-05-26 . Mona Awad wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award: ‘When I was writing the book, frankly, I never thought it would see the light of day’ . en-CA . . 2023-01-31.
77. Mark Medley, "Want to write a novel? First Novel Awards finalists say it's better with age". The Globe and Mail, April 16, 2016.
78. News: Medley . Mark . May 25, 2017 . Katherena Vermette wins Amazon.ca First Novel Award . en-CA . The Globe and Mail .
79. News: Medley . Mark . April 14, 2017 . Finalists announced for Amazon.ca First Novel Award . en-CA . .
80. "Winnipeg's Kaan wins book prize". London Free Press, May 24, 2018.
81. Deborah Dundas, "Sharon Bala, Omar El Akkad shortlisted for Amazon First Novel Award". Toronto Star, April 28, 2018.
82. Web site: Dundas . Deborah . May 22, 2019 . Casey Plett wins $60,000 Amazon first novel prize . . en.
83. Deborah Dundas, "Tanya Tagaq, Ian Williams among finalists for $60,000 Amazon Canada First Novel Award". Toronto Star, April 26, 2019.
84. Web site: June 5, 2022 . ‘The Dishwasher’ Author Stéphane Larue Wins the 2020 Amazon Canada First Novel Award . 2023-01-31 . The Walrus.
85. Web site: Qiao . Vicky . May 28, 2021 . Five Little Indians by Michelle Good wins $60K Amazon First Novel Award . 2023-01-31 . CBC.ca.
86. Web site: 2021-05-27 . Michelle Good Wins 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award . 2023-01-31 . . en-US.
87. Web site: The Canadian Press . 2022-06-01 . Pik-Shuen Fung’s ‘Ghost Forest’ wins Amazon Canada First Novel Award . 2023-01-31 . . en.
88. News: The Canadian Press . 2022-05-10 . Retired bricklayer among six debut novelists vying for $60,000 Amazon Canada First Novel Award . en-CA . . 2023-01-31.
89. https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/books/2023/06/01/jasmine-sealys-the-island-of-forgetting-wins-amazon-canada-first-novel-award.html "Jasmine Sealy’s ‘The Island of Forgetting’ wins Amazon Canada First Novel Award"
90. Cassandra Drudi, "Billy-Ray Belcourt, Jessica Johns among 2023 Amazon Canada First Novel finalists". Quill & Quire, May 4, 2023.
91. Attila Berki, "Alicia Elliott wins 2024 Amazon Canada First Novel Award". Quill & Quire, June 7, 2024.
92. Cassandra Drudi, "2024 Amazon First Novel Award shortlist revealed". Quill & Quire, May 9, 2024.