TORONTO – The accolades continue for authors Patrick DeWitt and Esi Edugyan.
So far this fall, the two writers have been shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize and longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Both authors were also named as contenders for the $25,000 Rogers Writers’ Trust Prize.
DeWitt is nominated for “The Sisters Brothers,” a comical western set amid the 1850s California gold rush. Edugyan is up for “Half-Blood Blues,” about black jazz musicians trying to survive in Europe during the Second World War.
Rounding out the list is Clark Blaise for “The Meagre Tarmac”; Michael Christie for “The Beggar’s Garden”; and Dan Vyleta for “The Quiet Twin.”
The Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize is the first of the three major Canadian literary prizes to announce its short list.
Finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize will be revealed Oct. 4 while the contenders for the Governor General’s Literary Awards come out Oct. 11.
To summarize, the five finalists for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize are:
• Clark Blaise for “The Meagre Tarmac”
• Michael Christie for “The Beggar’s Garden”
• Patrick deWitt for “The Sisters Brothers”
• Esi Edugyan for “Half-Blood Blues”
• Dan Vyleta for “The Quiet Twin”
The Writers’ Trust of Canada also announced finalists for the McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. Each of the three finalists will receive $1,000. The eventual prizewinner receives a total of $10,000 while the journal publishing the winning entry receives $2,000.
Finalists for the Journey Prize are:
• Seyward Goodhand for “The Fur Trader’s Daughter”
• Miranda Hill for “Petitions to Saint Chronic”
• Ross Klatte for “First-Calf Heifer”
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