Canisia Lubrin and Anne Fleming among longlisted Canadian authors for $216K Carol Shields Prize for Fiction
The Carol Shields Prize awards $150,000 U.S. (approx. $215,944 Cdn) to a single work of fiction by a woman or non-binary writer. The prize is open to English-language books published in the U.S. or Canada, including translations from Spanish and French. Writers must be citizens or permanent residents of Canada or the U.S.
Lubrin is longlisted for her book Code Noir, which was also shortlisted for the 2024 Atwood Gibson Fiction prize.
The Code Noir, or the Black Code, was a set of 59 articles decreed by Louis XVI in 1685 which regulated ownership of slaves in all French colonies. In Code Noir, Lubrin reflects on these codes to examine the legacy of enslavement and colonization — and the inherent power of Black resistance.
The inherent power of resistance: How Canisia Lubrin's debut novel Code Noir reflects on postcolonial agency
Lubrin is a Canadian writer, editor and academic who was born in St. Lucia and currently based in Whitby, Ont. Her debut poetry collection Voodoo Hypothesis was longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Award, the Pat Lowther Award and was a finalist for the Raymond Souster Award.
Her poetry collection The Dyzgraphxst won the 2021 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. It also won the 2021 Griffin Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Literary Prize for poetry.
Fleming is recognized for Curiosities, which was on the 2024 Giller Prize shortlist.
Curiosities centres around an amateur historian who discovers an obscure memoir from 1600s England that explores a love that could not be explained in those times. Weaving together different fictional accounts, the novel tells the life stories of Joan and Thomasina, the only two survivors of a village ravaged by the plague, and how they eventually find each other again. Thomasina, now Tom, navigates the world in boy's clothes and as a male, but faces a struggle when discovered, naked, by a member of the clergy.
Anne Fleming's novel Curiosities transports readers to the plagues, witch hunts and love stories of the 1600s
Fleming is an author based in Victoria. Her books include Pool-Hopping and Other Stories, which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. She has also written a middle-grade novel, The Goat, which was a Junior Library Guild and White Ravens selection.
The other Canadian titles on the Carol Shields Prize longlist are Pale Shadows by Dominique Fortier, translated by Rhonda Mullins, Naniki by Oonya Kempadoo and Cicada Summer by Erica McKeen.
The complete longlist is as follows:
"It has been a joy and an honour to select these outstanding books for the Carol Shields Prize longlist," said jury chair Diana Abu-Jaber in a press release.
"Each of these works is extraordinary and original, showing us the path forward, out of suppression, into humanity and liberation."
The jury is rounded out by Canadian authors Tessa McWatt, Kim Fu and Norma Dunning and American author Jeanne Thornton.
The shortlist will be announced on April 3 and the winner will be revealed on May 1. Each of the four finalists receives $12,500 U.S. (approx. $17,972 Cdn).
The Carol Shields Prize was founded by Susan Swan, Janice Zawerbny and Don Oravec.
Shields, the prize's namesake, was one of Canada's best-known writers.
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