Novelist Plett wins $60,000 Amazon prize
Little Fish explores how far trans community has come and how far it still has to go
BOOKS EDITOR
Little Fish by Casey Plett, a novel exploring the experience of trans women, has won the $60,000 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. The announcement was made at a gala event in Toronto on Wednesday night.
Plett, an accomplished editor and writer, has a Mennonite background and is originally from Winnipeg, like the main character, Wendy Reimer. Plett’s an important voice offering a touching, heartfelt and often funny look into the experiences of trans people as well as a sense of community. Little Fish was chosen from a fierce list of six finalists, which included The Amateurs by Liz Harmer (Knopf Canada); Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard (Invisible Publishing); Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq (Viking Canada); Jonny Appleseed by Joshua Whitehead (Arsenal Pulp Press); and Reproduction by Ian Williams (Penguin Random House Canada).
“Whereas last year’s crop seemed more focused on Canada’s place in the world, with an emphasis on international conflict, this year’s most evocative writers have trained their gaze inward exploring the nuances of identity, history and class that have systemically defined and divided Canadians,” said jury member Dimitri Nasrallah, a winner himself of the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Hugh MacLennan and First Book prizes. Nasrallah is author of three novels, including most recently The Bleeds (2018).
The other two members of the jury were Diane Schoemperlen, a Governor General’s Award-winning author of 14 books, including This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications, and Doretta Lau, author of the short-story collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun?.
Initially established in 1976 and now supported by Amazon, the First Novel Award has been taken home by some of Canada’s most acclaimed writers, including Michael Ondaatje, Katherena Vermette, Joy Kogawa, Joan Barfoot, W.P. Kinsella, Nino Ricci, Rohinton Mistry, Michael Redhill, Mona Awad and Michael Kaan.