Alix Hawley (photo: Tom Sandler)

B.C.-based author Alix Hawley was presented with the $7,500 Amazon.ca First Novel Award, which recognizes an exceptional English-language title by a Canadian debut novelist, at a ceremony last night in Toronto.

Hawley’s All True Not a Lie In It, which fictionalizes the life of American frontiersman Daniel Boone, was selected by a jury comprising The Walrus fiction editor Nick Mount and authors Helen Humphreys and Richard Wagamese.

The shortlist in full:

• Alix Hawley, All True Not a Lie In It (Knopf Canada)
• Emma Hooper, Etta and Otto and Russell and James (Hamish Hamilton Canada)
• Sean Michaels, Us Conductors (Random House Canada)
• Guillaume Morissette, New Tab (Esplanade Books)
• Chelsea Rooney, Pedal (Caitlin Press)