Fatimah Asghar is the winner of the first-ever Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, given annually “to celebrate creativity and excellence in fiction by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States.”
Asghar took home the award for their debut novel, When We Were Sisters. Published by One World last October, the book follows three sisters whose parents moved from Pakistan to the U.S. and who are forced to raise one another after their father is murdered.
The novel was previously longlisted for the National Book Award. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus called the book “an assured first novel [that] explores the bonds and divides among three orphaned sisters.”
In a statement, the prize’s jury said, “A debut novel written by a skilled, assured hand, When We Were Sisters absolutely dazzles.…Asghar’s novel is a tour de force, at once stirring and beautiful, breathtaking in its lyricism, and head-turning in its experimentations.”
The Carol Shields Prize was established in 2020; this is the first year it has been awarded. It is named after the American Canadian author of novels including The Stone Diaries, Larry’s Party, and Unless.
Susan Swan, Janice Zawerbny, and Don Oravec, the prize’s co-founders, said in a statement, “Our heartiest congratulations to Fatimah for making history with us as the first winner of the Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. It was a nail-biting moment because the five nominees made up one of the strongest literary prize shortlists we’ve seen in recent years.”
Michael Schaub, a journalist and regular contributor to NPR, lives near Austin, Texas.
