Amanda Leduc, Nina Dunic, Jaime Burnet, and Lee Lai have been longlisted for the 2026 Carol Shields Prize for Nonfiction. (Amanda Leduc: Trevor Cole, Jaime Burnet: John Packman, Lee Lai: Bee Elton)

The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction has announced its 15-title longlist for the 2026 prize.

The $150,000 (U.S.) prize, named after the American-born and Canadian-based author Carol Shields, celebrates and promotes the best works of fiction written by women and non-binary writers in Canada and the United States. In addition to a cash prize, the winner will also receive a five-night stay at Fogo Island Inn. The four finalists receive $12,500 (U.S.). This is the fourth year the prize will be awarded.

The Canadian authors longlisted are: Jaime Burnet for milktooth (Vagrant Press); Nina Dunic for Suddenly Light (Invisible Publishing); Lee Lai for Cannon (Drawn & Quarterly); and Amanda Leduc for Wild Life (Random House Canada).

A five-book shortlist will be announced on April 21, with the winner to be named at an event in Toronto on June 2.

This year’s books were selected by a jury comprised of writers chair Carmen Maria Machado, Ivan Coyote, Cherie Dimaline, Chitra Divakaruni, and Deesha Philyaw.

The longlisted books are:

• The Edge of Water by Olufunke Grace Bankole (Tin House)
• Sea, Poison by Caren Beilin (New Directions Publishing)
• milktooth by Jaime Burnet (Vagrant Press/Nimbus Publishing)
• Suddenly Light by Nina Dunic (Invisible Publishing)
• Canticle by Janet Rich Edwards (Spiegel & Grau)
• Hellions by Julia Elliott (Tin House)
• Casualties of Truth by Lauren Francis-Sharma (Atlantic Monthly Press)
• The White Hot by Quiara Alegría Hudes (One World/Penguin Random House)
• Audition by Katie Kitamura (Riverhead Books/PRH)
• Cannon by Lee Lai (Drawn & Quarterly)
• Wild Life by Amanda Leduc (Random House Canada)
• A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar (McClelland & Stewart/Penguin Random House Canada)
• The Morgue Keeper by Ruyan Meng (7.13 Books)
• The Sea Gives Up the Dead by Molly Olguín (Red Hen Press)
• Lion by Sonya Walger (New York Review Books)