Five authors on T.O. book prize shortlist
Dionne Brand curated the anthology The Unpublished City, which is up for a Toronto Book Award.
A diverse group of writers including Dionne Brand and Lee Maracle are on the fivetitle shortlist for the 2018 Toronto Book Awards, established in 1974 to honour books of literary merit that are evocative of the city. This year’s finalists are:
Brand, who curated the anthology The Unpublished City (Book*hug). It’s the second year for this project that features prose and poetry from Toronto writers who are emerging but have yet to be published.
David Chariandy for his novel Brother (McClelland & Stewart), about two Black brothers growing up in Scarborough’s housing projects, which has already won the Rogers Writers Trust Award.
Carrianne Leung for That Time I Loved You (HarperCollins), also about the immigrant experience (again in Scarborough), with “portraits of isolation” and “the promises and betrayals of the suburban dream,” according to the Star’s reviewer.
Maracle for My Conversations With Canadians (Book*hug), an essay collection that speaks to her many experiences as a Canadian, First Nations leader, mother, grandmother and activist.
Kerri Sakamotofor Floating City (Knopf Canada), the story of a poor Japanese-Canadian boy from B.C. who becomes a visionary architect/developer working in Toronto, with the book tracing the 20th-century history of Canada along the way.
The winner receives $10,000 and each finalists receives $1,000. The winner will be announced on Oct.10 at a ceremony at the Toronto Reference Library’s Bram and Bluma Appel Salon beginning at 7 p.m. The ceremony is open to the public.