Teva Harrison

Rakuten Kobo has released the shortlists for its 2017 Emerging Writer Prizes, offering $10,000 to a new author in each of three categories. Along with a cash prize, the three winners will receive promotional and marketing support.

The following finalists were selected based on Kobo e-reading data such as book completion rates, customer ratings, and reviews:

Non-Fiction, to be judged by author Ross King

• Sarah Barmak, Closer: Notes from the Orgasmic Frontier of Female Sexuality (Coach House Books)
• Ann Brocklehurst, Dark Ambition (Penguin Canada)
• Denise Donlon, Fearless as Possible (Under the Circumstances) (House of Anansi Press)
• Teva Harrison, In-Between Days: A Memoir About Living with Cancer (Anansi)
• Stephen Le, 100 Million Years Of Food (HarperCollins)
• Rajiv Surendra, The Elephants in My Backyard (Random House Canada)

Literary Fiction, to be judged by author Zoe Whittall

• Ann Y.K. Choi, Kay’s Lucky Coin Variety (Touchstone/S&S Canada)
• John Bart, Middenrammers (Freehand Books)
• M-E Girard, Girl Mans Up (HarperCollins)
• Lynne Kutsukake, The Translation of Love (Knopf Canada)
• Eric Beck Rubin, School of Velocity (Doubleday Canada)
• Heather Tucker, The Clay Girl (ECW Press)

Genre Fiction (Speculative Fiction)

• Kade Cook, GREY (Theo & Quinn Creative Works)
• Jean-Francois Dubeau, The Life Engineered (Inkshares)
• Jay Hosking, Three Years with the Rat (Penguin)
• Cynthea Masson, The Alchemists’ Council (ECW)
• Barbara Radecki, The Darkhouse (Cormorant Books)
• Dee Willson, A Keeper’s Truth (Driven Press)

The recipients will be announced at a ceremony in Toronto on June 27.