The finalists for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, given to women and nonbinary writers in the U.S. and Canada, have been revealed.
Suzette Mayr made the shortlist for The Sleeping Car Porter, which won the Scotiabank Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, United States and Canada.
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri was named a finalist for What We Fed to the Manticore, which was previously longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, the Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction.
Daphne Palasi Andreades was shortlisted for Brown Girls, a finalist for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize, while Fatimah Asghar was named a finalist for When We Were Sisters, which previously made the longlist for the National Book Award for fiction. Alexis Schaitkin took a finalist spot for Elsewhere.
The prize’s co-founders, Susan Swan, Don Oravec, and Janice Zawerbny, said in a statement, “The three of us are hugely excited by the warm public welcome being given The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. There’s never been a prize quite like it! The announcement of our shortlist is a bold step towards a more equitable future.”
This is the first year for the Carol Shields Prize. It was announced in 2020 and honors the late author of novels such as The Stone Diaries and Small Ceremonies. Shields was born in the U.S. and moved to Canada; she died in 2003 at the age of 68.
The winner of the award, which comes with a cash prize of $150,000, will be announced at an event at Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 4.
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
