Writers’ Trust Fiction finalists named
Rising Toronto author Krista Bridge was at home vacuuming and entertaining her toddler Monday when she received what she calls the biggest surprise of her life: word that her debut novel, The Eliot Girls, is a finalist for the $25,000 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
“My agent called and told me, and I probably shouldn’t say this, but I really thought she must be mistaken,” the 37-year-old said shortly after learning of the honour.
“Like, I just couldn’t believe it. I thought she had to have made a mistake. It wasn’t until I saw the actual news on the computer screen that I thought, ‘Oh, OK, she didn’t mix it up.’”
Bridge’s story of a teen adapting to life in a cliquey girls’ private school made the short list along with four other well-established authors, including Commonwealth Writers’ Prize winner and multi-award nominee Lisa Moore of St. John’s for Caught.
Moore’s story of a pot-smuggling jailbird is also on the long list for this year’s $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Meanwhile, Lynn Coady — a 2011 Giller finalist from Cape Breton, N.S. — is a Writers’ Trust contender with Hellgoing. The short story collection is also up for this year’s Giller.
Colin McAdam, also a former Giller finalist who is based in Toronto, is nominated for A Beautiful Truth. The story follows a couple and their chimpanzee.
And Cary Fagan, a Toronto native who’s been on the Giller long list, is a finalist for A Bird’s Eye. The 1930s Toronto tale is about a boy and his love of magic in his Jewish neighbourhood.
Writers’ Trust fiction prize jury members Caroline Adderson, Alison Pick and Miguel Syjuco read 115 books from 50 publishers to choose the five finalists, who will each receive $2,500.
The winner of the award, as well as several others handed out by the Trust, will be announced on Nov. 20 in Toronto.