The battle continues between IMPAC nominees Patrick deWitt and Esi Edugyan

Twenty Canadian titles*, ranging from literary prizewinners to debut novels, have made the longlist for the 2013 IMPAC Dublin Award.

According to award organizers, 154 titles were nominated by libraries in 120 cities. Man Booker Prize winner The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes received the most nominations at 15, with Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers (House of Anansi Press) also receiving multiple nods.

Once again, deWitt’s novel faces off against Esi Edugyan‘s Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers) and Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table (McClelland & Stewart), two other titles that dominated the 2011 Canadian prize circuit. Several debuts also appear, including Heather Jessup‘s The Lightning Field (Gaspereau Press), Olive Senior’s Dancing Lessons (Cormorant Books), and Alexi Zentner Touch (Knopf Canada).

Other nominated Canadian titles are:

• Dirty Feet (Anansi), Edem Awumey; Lazer Lederhendler, trans.
• Tell It to the Trees (Knopf Canada), Anita Rau Badami
• Beggar’s Feast (Penguin Canada), Randy Boyagoda
• The Reinvention of Love (HarperCollins Canada), Helen Humphreys
• A Possible Madness (Cape Breton University Press), Frank MacDonald
• Niko (Véhicule Press), Dimitri Nasrallah
• A World Elsewhere (Knopf Canada), Wayne Johnston
• The Return (Douglas & McIntyre), Dany Laferrière; David Homel, trans.
• The Town that Drowned (Goose Lane Editions), Riel Nason
• Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul (Doubleday Canada), David Adams Richards
• Easy to Like, Edward Riche (Anansi)
• A Good Man (M&S), Guy Vanderhaeghe
• Double Talk (Breakwater Books), Patrick Warner

At €100,000, the IMPAC is world’s richest prize for an English-language work of fiction. A jury-selected shortlist will be announced April 9.

The shortlist will be announced April 9.

CORRECTION, Nov. 12: An earlier version of this list excluded Edward Riche’s Easy to Like.